經文: 「凡勞苦擔重擔的人可以到我這裡來，我就使你們得安息。我心裡柔和謙卑，你們當負我的軛，學我的樣式；這樣，你們心裡就必得享安息。」— [聖經·馬太福音 11章28-29節]
許多人會問，治死老自己真的有這樣簡單、迅速嗎？不是很多有經驗的人說過，要養成柔和謙卑、忍耐等德性，是需要很長的一段時間嗎？如我前述，只要憑信心將心思意念轉向上帝，就可與耶穌柔和謙卑的性情有分；就如同罪人願意開口認罪，接受耶穌為個人救主，他就算為重生得救了。為什麼許多人枉然刻苦勞累，卻做不到這些品格？那是因為他們用「人為」的方式去追求，卻不是憑信心向耶穌求告。
「凡勞苦擔重擔的人可以到我這裡來，我就使你們得安息。」(馬太福音 十一28) 耶穌的應許簡潔有力，只要照著做，就可得著祂的安息。你不妨反省自問，究竟自己是用什麼方法，來脫離老我的轄制與罪的權勢？耶穌已經升天作王，握有天上與地下的權柄，我們卻沒有把祂當做萬王之王來看待，向祂支取必要的幫助與能力，這不是頂愚蠢的事嗎？
向耶穌順服，棄絕自己，會不會帶給我什麼好處？這倒不是問題！重要的是我們能否像當年使徒那樣，憑信心向耶穌求取柔和謙卑、忍耐順服，直到得著所應許的聖靈果子。
除了勉勵眾弟兄棄絕老我外，還要將信心希望寄託在上帝的羔羊身上。何謂上帝的羔羊？不就是那位滿有柔和謙卑，向上帝完全順服的耶穌嗎？因此，當你謙卑俯伏在上帝的羔羊面前，真誠渴望在祂的生命性情上有份，又願這樣的倒空自己，敬拜渴望祂的內住；耶穌的柔和謙卑，焉能不在我們內心成形？
我們常以為對耶穌的信心，僅限於相信接受祂在十字架上為我們所做的救贖工作，其實祂受死的意義遠甚於此，其還包括相信聖靈的同在與運行，宣告祂的恩典夠用，幫助我們完成「進深成聖」的過程。這樣「以信以至於信」的「信心」，藉著每天不斷的操練，我們就被模塑成上帝羔羊的形像，能以基督的心為心，活出屬天的生命。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 8月21日]
作者：慕安德烈
編輯：榮華興
『 Dying to Self 』
Scripture: “Come to me, all you who are troubled and weighted down with care, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and become like me, for I am gentle and without pride, and you will have rest for your souls;” — [Matthew 11:28-29]
“Many will ask how this way of overcoming self is to be so simple, plain and immediate. Is it not the doctrine of almost all men that much length of time and practice are scarce sufficient for the attainment of any one of these four virtues?” “I have referred you to Patience, Meekness, Humility as the one plain and immediate way of dying to self, because you can as easily and immediately, by the mere turning and faith of your mind have all the benefit of these virtues, as publicans and sinners by their turning to Christ could be helped and saved by Him. The reason that you or others are vainly endeavoring after these virtues, is because you seek them in a multitude of human rules and methods, and not in that simplicity of faith in which those who applied to Christ immediately obtained that which they asked of Him.”
” ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ How short and simple and certain a way to peace and comfort. What becomes now of your rules and methods, to be delivered from self and the power of sin, and find the redeeming power and virtue of Christ ? What a folly it would be to suppose that Christ, after having finished His great work, and ascended into heaven, with all power in heaven and on earth, was become less a Saviour, and gave less immediate help, than when He lived as man upon earth.
“You say that it is not the question whether my giving up myself to Christ in faith would do me as much good as it did to them who came to Him on earth; but whether my turning in faith to Patience, Meekness, Humility and Resignation to God, would do to me all that faith in Christ did for those who became His disciples.
“When I exhort you to give up yourself in faith and hope to these virtues, what else do I do, but turn you directly to so much faith and hope in the true Lamb of God. What is the Lamb of God but the perfection of patience, meekness, humility and resignation to God ? And consequently, is not every sincere wish and desire, every inclination of your heart, that longs to be governed by these virtues, an immediate, direct application to Christ, a worshipping and falling down before Him, a giving up of yourself unto Him, and the very perfection of faith in Him.”
We too often think of faith in Christ only as connected with the work He did for us on the Cross. But its meaning is far larger and richer. It is by faith that zve can claim all the grace and the mind there were in Him, and receive it through the Spirit as ours. Faith then becomes the daily exercise by which the virtues and the graces that there are in Christ cart become ours. And so we get the mind of Christ.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 21 August 」
