經文: 耶穌說:「你們信我能做這事嗎?」,他們說:「主啊!我們信。」— (聖經·馬太福音 9章28節b)
耶穌對他說:「你若能信,在信的人,凡事都能。」孩子的父親立時喊著說:「我信,但我信不足,求主幫助。」(馬可福音 九23-24)。耶穌說:「信我的人,雖然死了,也必復活;凡活著信我的人,必永遠不死,你信這話嗎?」(約翰福音 十一25-26)。
我們在聖經中,看到馬大對耶穌這個問題的反應:「主啊!是的,我信祢是基督,是上帝的兒子。」(約翰福音 十一27)。但是一提到有關耶穌的應許,諸如復活的生命,每時每刻的同在,很多基督徒卻信不來,覺得要相信祂可以無時無刻地與我們同在,和我們同行談心,是件遙不可及的事。但這正是耶穌要生發我們信心的時候,因為祂要作工在我們心裡面。
有一件很重要的事,就是我們要清楚了解,在怎樣的條件下,耶穌要向我們顯明祂同在內住的奧祕。若我們終日思想惡的事情,上帝無法親近我們,祂也不會硬把福份給我們。但上帝會盡其所能地激動我們的心,賜下渴慕上帝的心,幫助我們明白祂是何等熱切地要成就祂所說的應許,耶穌從死裡復活的神蹟,正是上帝喜悅祂愛子的明證,也是上帝「應許」成就,最顛峰至極的表現。耶穌背負著全人類的罪惡重擔與詛咒,上帝卻能勝過死亡的權勢,叫耶穌從死裡復活。上帝豈不是也能夠將這浩大無比的能力,賜給信靠祂的孩子們?而且祂極其樂意將祂的應許落實在我們身上,願意內住在我們心中,成為我們每天的力量與喜樂。
但問題來了,我們對耶穌的認知是「風聞有祢」的「頭腦中的知識」呢?還是將祂的話當真,百分之百不打折扣地站立在祂穩若磐石的堅固應許上?祂說:「我必與你同在。」(出埃及記 三12)。耶穌又問:「你信這話嗎?」(約翰福音 十一26),但願我們能靜默等候在主面前,直到整個人浸沐、領悟到這一個真理,並開口宣告:「主啊!我相信。」
—《 神 的 心 意 》
(每日靈修 7月12日)
作者:慕安德烈
編輯:榮華興
『 The Great Question 』
Scripture: “Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto Him, Yea, Lord.” — (Matthew 9:28b)
And Jesus said to him, If you are able! All things are possible to him who has faith. Straight away the father of the child gave a cry, saying, I have faith; make my feeble faith stronger. (Mark 9:23-24) Jesus said, he who has faith in me will have life even if he is dead; And no one who is living and has faith in me will ever see death. Is this your faith? (John 11:25-26)
To what we have seen and heard of Christ Jesus, our heart is ready to say with Martha, in answer to Christ’s question: “Yea, Lord, I have believed that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God.” But when it comes to the point of believing that what Christ promises to us of the power of the resurrection life, of His abiding presence every day and all the day, we do not find it so easy to say, “I do believe that this omnipotent, omnipresent, unchangeable Christ, our Redeemer God, will in very deed walk with me all the day, and give me the unceasing consciousness of His holy presence” — it almost looks too much to venture. And yet it is just this faith that Christ asks, and is waiting to work within us.
It is well that we understand clearly what the conditions are on which Christ offers to reveal to us in experience the secret of His abiding presence. God cannot force His blessings on us against our will. He seeks in every possible way to stir our desire, and to help us to realize that He is able and most willing to make His promises true. The resurrection of Christ from the dead is His great plea, His all-prevailing argument. If He could raise that dead Christ, Who had died under the burden of all our sin and curse, surely He can, now that Christ has conquered death, and is to us the Resurrection and the Life, fulfil in our hearts His promise that Christ can be so with us, and so in us that He Himself should be our life all the day.
And now the great question comes, whether in view of what we have said and seen about Christ as our Lord, as our redeeming God, whether we are willing to take His word in all simplicity in its divine fullness of meaning, and to rest in the promise: “Lo, I am with you all the day.” Christ’s question comes to us: “Believest thou this?” Let us not rest until we have bowed before Him and said: “Yea, Lord, I do believe.”
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray ( 12 July )