8月21日 不受注意的事奉

虚心的人有福了。（太五3）

依我们的标准来看，新约所注意的事物，似乎都是微不足道的。“虚心的人有福了”，按原意解释是贫穷的人有福了。贫穷的人，何等平凡！今日的讲台很容易侧重意志的力量、品性的美善－－一些易于惹人注目的东西。今日常听的口号－－为主决志，其实是强调了一件我们的主从不信任的事。他从没有叫我们为他决志，他只要我们降服，这是截然不同的两件事。耶稣基督国度的基础，是在于未经修饰的平凡事物。叫我蒙福的，是我的贫穷。我若自知没有意志力、没有高贵的品质，耶稣就会说：“你有福了。”因为我是透过贫穷无有，得以进入他的国。我不能以好人的身分进入，只能以一无所有的叫化子身分进去。

一切表彰神可爱事物的真正品质，必然是不自觉的。自觉有影响力，是自负及非信徒的表现。若我说：“我怀疑自己到底是否有用。”立时就与主的生命失了连络。“信我的，要从他腹中流出活水的江河来。”我若检查那流出来的水，就失去了主的能力。哪些人影响我们最深？不是那自以为影响了我们的人，而是那些完全不知道影响我们的人。在基督徒的生命中，内涵的东西总不是自知自觉的；一旦意识到，就会失掉那未经修饰的美，这正是主耶稣亲手抚摸的特质。我们往往可以知道耶稣何时在作工，因为他能在平凡中制造超卓。

祈祷◆主啊，我要赞美你，你在每个人的生命中，也透过每个人的生命，来实行你完美的旨意。

August 21 The Ministry Of The Unnoticed

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Matthew 5:3

The New Testament notices things which from our standards do not seem to count. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” literally – Blessed are the paupers – an exceedingly commonplace thing! The preaching of to-day is apt to emphasize strength of will, beauty of character – the things that are easily noticed. The phrase we hear so often, Decide for Christ, is an emphasis on something Our Lord never trusted. He never asks us to decide for Him, but to yield to Him – a very different thing. At the basis of Jesus Christ's Kingdom is the unaffected loveliness of the commonplace. The thing I am blessed in is my poverty. If I know I have no strength of will, no nobility of disposition, then Jesus says – Blessed are you, because it is through this poverty that I enter His Kingdom. I cannot enter His Kingdom as a good man or woman, I can only enter it as a complete pauper.

The true character of the loveliness that tells for God is always unconscious. Conscious influence is priggish and un-Christian. If I say – I wonder if I am of any use – I instantly lose the bloom of the touch of the Lord. “He that believeth in me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water.” If I examine the outflow, I lose the touch of the Lord.

Which are the people who have influenced us most? Not the ones who thought they did, but those who had not the remotest notion that they were influencing us. In the Christian life the implicit is never conscious, if it is conscious it ceases to have this unaffected loveliness which is the characteristic of the touch of Jesus. We always know when Jesus is at work because He produces in the commonplace something that is inspiring.