10月23日 一点也不

“若有人在基督里，他就是新造的人，旧事已过，都变成新的了。”林后5:17

我们的主从不看护我们的成见，他只克服它们，清理它们。我们想像神对我们的特别成见有着特别的兴趣；我们很肯定神不会像对付其他人那样对付我们。“神一定会非常严厉的对付其他人，他当然知道我的成见是对的。”可是我们必须认识到神不但不站在我们的成见这边，反而有意地要将它们清扫出去。我们所受的道德教育的一部分是，让神的旨意除去我们的成见，并看看他怎么做。神毫不在意我们带给他什么。神只想要我们做一件事，就是无条件的降服。

当我们重生的时候，圣灵开始将他的新创造做在我们里面，必有一天旧秩序所遗留的会荡然无存，离开旧的仪式，离开旧的态度，“所有的都是属神的。”我们如何得到那没有情欲、没有自我利益、对别人的刺痛不敏感、有不轻易发怒的爱、不思想罪恶、常待人有恩慈的生命呢？唯一的办法是不让一点点旧生命留下来，而只单单完全地信靠神，以致我们不再想要神的祝福，只想要他自己。我们是否到达一个地步，神可以撤回他的祝福而不会影响我们对他的信靠？当一旦我们看到神在做工，我们就不会为所发生的事烦扰，因为我们正实际的信靠我们在天上的父，他是这世界无法看到的。

October 23 Not A Bit Of It!

“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Our Lord never nurses our prejudices, He mortifies them, runs clean athwart them. We imagine that God has a special interest in our particular prejudices; we are quite sure that God will never deal with us as He has to deal with other people. “God must deal with other people in a very stern way, but of course He knows that my prejudices are all right.” We have to learn – “Not a bit of it!” Instead of God being on the side of our prejudices, He is deliberately wiping them out. It is part of our moral education to have our prejudices run straight across by His providence, and to watch how He does it. God pays no respect to anything we bring to Him. There is only one thing God wants of us, and that is our unconditional surrender.

When we are born again, the Holy Spirit begins to work His new creation in us, and there will come a time when there is not a bit of the old order left, the old solemnity goes, the old attitude to things goes, and “all things are of God.” How are we going to get the life that has no lust, no self-interest, no sensitiveness to pokes, the love that is not provoked, that thinketh no evil, that is always kind? The only way is by allowing not a bit of the old life to be left; but only simple perfect trust in God, such trust that we no longer want God's blessings, but only want Himself. Have we come to the place where God can withdraw His blessings and it does not affect our trust in Him? When once we see God at work, we will never bother our heads about things that happen, because we are actually trusting in our Father in Heaven Whom the world cannot see.