在災禍中間得勝
經文: 「你為自己圖謀大事麼?不要圖謀。我必使災禍臨到凡有血氣的。但你無論往那裡去,我必使你以自己的命為掠物。這是耶和華說的。」(耶四十五5)
在極大的災禍中,耶和華給耶利米一個安全的應許,就是「以自己的命為掠物」。在這末世時代,這應許在我們身上,也是非常適用的。
「以自己的命為掠物」到底是甚麼意思呢?意思說:我們能從毀滅者的爪牙中間搶出我們自己的命來,好像大衛從獅子口中搶出羊羔來一般。這並不是挪去戰爭、挪去仇敵;這乃是在敵人面前擺設筵席,在風雨中間建立避難所,在災禍中間存留性命。保羅的刺雖然沒有離開他,但是基督的恩典夠他用的,基督的能力覆庇了他。主阿,求祢使我以自己的命為掠物,在最危險難的環境中獲得勝利!──譯自地上的屬天生活(Days of Heaven upon Earth)
我們常求脫離災禍,卻不求在災禍中間得勝;我們應當活在災禍中間,深信我們被保守在上帝的庇護之下,絕不能受到絲毫傷損。我們的主在曠野,受魔鬼的試探四十晝夜,雖然又餓又倦,魔鬼並不能傷害祂。火窑雖然比尋長燒熱七倍,三個希伯來人卻在火中遊行。但以理雖然被扔在獅子坑中,當他從坑裡被繫上來的時候,「身上毫無傷損,因為信靠他的上帝。」(但六23)──選
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In God, Not Out of Trouble
Scripture: "And seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest" (Jer. 45:5).
A promise given for hard places, and a promise of safety and life in the midst of tremendous pressure, a life "for a prey." It may well adjust itself to our own times, which are growing harder as we near the end of the age, and the Tribulation times.
What is the meaning of "a life for a prey"? It means a life snatched out of the jaws of the destroyer, as David snatched the lamb from the lion. It means not removal from the noise of the battle and the presence of our foes; but it means a table in the midst of our enemies, a shelter from the storm, a fortress amid the foe, a life preserved in the face of continual pressure: Paul's healing when pressed out of measure so that he despaired of life; Paul's Divine help when the thorn remained, but the power of Christ rested upon him and the grace of Christ was sufficient. Lord, give me my life for a prey, and in the hardest places help me today to be victorious. --Days of Heaven upon Earth
We often pray to be delivered from calamities; we even trust that we shall be; but we do not pray to be made what we should be, in the very presence of the calamities; to live amid them, as long as they last, in the consciousness that we are, held and sheltered by the Lord, and can therefore remain in the midst of them, so long as they continue, without any hurt. For forty days and nights, the Saviour was kept in the presence of Satan in the wilderness, and that, under circumstances of special trial, His human nature being weakened by want of food and rest. The furnace was heated seven times more than it was wont to be heated, but the three Hebrew children were kept a season amid its flames as calm and composed in the presence of the tyrant's last appliances of torture, as they were in the presence of himself before their time of deliverance came. And the livelong night did Daniel sit among the lions, and when he was taken up out of the den, "no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God." They dwelt in the presence of the enemy, because they dwelt in the presence of God.
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