September 03, 2013

Pouring Out the Water of Satisfaction

He would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord —2 Samuel 23:16

What has been like “water from the well of Bethlehem” to you recently— love, friendship, or maybe some spiritual blessing (2 Samuel 23:16)? Have you taken whatever it may be, even at the risk of damaging your own soul, simply to satisfy yourself? If you have, then you cannot pour it out “to the Lord.” You can never set apart for God something that you desire for yourself to achieve your own satisfaction. If you try to satisfy yourself with a blessing from God, it will corrupt you. You must sacrifice it, pouring it out to God— something that your common sense says is an absurd waste.

How can I pour out “to the Lord” natural love and spiritual blessings? There is only one way— I must make a determination in my mind to do so. There are certain things other people do that could never be received by someone who does not know God, because it is humanly impossible to repay them. As soon as I realize that something is too wonderful for me, that I am not worthy to receive it, and that it is not meant for a human being at all, I must pour it out “to the Lord.” Then these very things that have come to me will be poured out as “rivers of living water” all around me (John 7:38). And until I pour these things out to God, they actually endanger those I love, as well as myself, because they will be turned into lust. Yes, we can be lustful in things that are not sordid and vile. Even love must be transformed by being poured out “to the Lord.”

If you have become bitter and sour, it is because when God gave you a blessing you hoarded it. Yet if you had poured it out to Him, you would have been the sweetest person on earth. If you are always keeping blessings to yourself and never learning to pour out anything “to the Lord,” other people will never have their vision of God expanded through you.


把滿足的水澆奠

……他卻不肯喝,將水奠在耶和華面前……(撒下二十三16)

對你來說,什麼東西像是從伯利恆井裡打來的水?是愛?朋友?還是屬靈的祝福?你若只顧滿足自己,就必危害自己的靈命。這樣,就無法把它傾在主面前。凡是拿來滿足自己的東西,必無法分別為聖歸神。你若拿神的賜福來滿足自己,就必致敗壞。你必須把它獻上,完全傾倒。

我怎樣把天然的愛或屬靈的祝福傾倒給主呢?只有一個方法,就是立定心志。一個不認識神的人,永沒法接受別人所作的某些事,因為這些事並非人力所能報償的。要是我說:[這太偉大了,我不配受,根本不是血肉之軀的人可以接受的,我必須把它傾出來給主。 ]就在這一刻,這些東西就傾在湧流四方的活泉里。我若不這樣傾倒,就會危害自己和所愛的人,因為它會變成情慾。在並不污穢卑劣​​的事情上,也可以產生貪戀的情慾。愛必須為主完全傾倒,才能達到主變象的境界。

若為自己緊緊抓住神的賜福,你就會愈來愈苦澀煩躁;相反地,你若早把它澆奠在主前,就早已成為從天而降最愉快的人。你若只會一味接受賜福,而從不學習為主傾倒,別人的眼界就永不會因你得著擴闊。

祈禱◆主啊,這個早上,我懷著一份靈性失敗的感覺,來到你面前。藉著你的恩典來潔淨我,讓我重回基督耶穌在天上的地方。

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