6月9日 第二步妙法

因为凡祈求的就得着。（路十一10）

没有一件事比祈求更难的了。我们会渴望、爱慕，甚至受煎熬；但非等到山穷水尽，无路可走，我们决不会祈求。只有一种不现实的感觉才催使我们去祈求。你有没有从德性贫乏的深坑中向神祈求？“你们中间若有缺少智慧的，可以向神求……”但千万要弄清楚你是真的缺少智慧，你无法照自己的意思随时面对实际的事物。你若觉得没有属灵的实在，第二步最佳的办法就是照主的话求圣灵（参路十一13）。圣灵的工作就是把耶稣为你所成就的一切，变成真实。

“凡祈求的就得着。”这不是说，你不求就得不着（比较太五45），而是说你未去到求的地方，就始终不能从神领受什么。领受的意思就是已与神建立父子的关系，在理智上、精神上，以及属灵的悟性上，都知道是从神而来的。

“你们中间若有缺少智慧的……”你知道自己的缺乏，因为你摸着了属灵的实际。请勿把你理智的闪灯亮起。人们会说：“传简单的福音给我们吧；不用叫我们成为圣洁，因为这使人觉得自己一贫如洗，这感觉并不好受。”“求”就是乞求的意思。有些人家徒四壁而安于贫穷，我们中间一些人在属灵上也是如此。心目中若有目的去求，就永不会从神获得；因为是出于情欲，而不是由于贫穷。乞丐求乞，除了一贫如洗的理由之外，便没有别的理由。因此他并不耻于求乞－－灵里贫穷的人有福了。

祈祷◆主啊，为着这教会，我称颂你，因为她正证明你是“穷乏人的力量、是急难中困苦人的力量，是波浪中的避难所、是热气下的庇荫”。

June 9 The Next Best Thing To Do

“For every one that asketh receiveth.” Luke 11:10

There is nothing more difficult than to ask. We will long and desire and crave and suffer, but not until we are at the extreme limit will we ask. A sense of unreality makes us ask. Have you ever asked out of the depths of moral poverty? “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God . . . ”but be sure that you do lack wisdom. You cannot bring yourself up against reality when you like. The next best thing to do if you are not spiritually real, is to ask God for the Holy Spirit on the word of Jesus Christ (see Luke 11:13). The Holy Spirit is the One who makes real in you all that Jesus did for you.

“For every one that asketh receiveth.” This does not mean you will not get if you do not ask (cf. Matt. 5:45), but until you get to the point of asking you won't receive from God. To receive means you have come into the relationship of a child of God, and now you perceive with intelligent and moral appreciation and spiritual understanding that these things come from God.

“If any of you lack wisdom . . .” If you realize you are lacking, it is because you have come in contact with spiritual reality; do not put your reasonable blinkers on again. People say – Preach us the simple gospel: don't tell us we have to be holy, because that produces a sense of abject poverty, and it is not nice to feel abjectly poor. “Ask” means beg. Some people are poor enough to be interested in their poverty, and some of us are like that spiritually. We will never receive if we ask with an end in view; if we ask, not out of our poverty but out of our lust. A pauper does not ask from any other reason than the abject panging condition of his poverty, he is not ashamed to beg. – Blessed are the paupers in spirit.