Taking Possession of Our Own Soul

By your patience possess your souls —Luke 21:19

When a person is born again, there is a period of time when he does not have the same vitality in his thinking or reasoning that he previously had. We must learn to express this new life within us, which comes by forming the mind of Christ (see Philippians 2:5). Luke 21:19 means that we take possession of our souls through patience. But many of us prefer to stay at the entrance to the Christian life, instead of going on to create and build our soul in accordance with the new life God has placed within us. We fail because we are ignorant of the way God has made us, and we blame things on the devil that are actually the result of our own undisciplined natures. Just think what we could be when we are awakened to the truth!

There are certain things in life that we need not pray about— moods, for instance. We will never get rid of moodiness by praying, but we will by kicking it out of our lives. Moods nearly always are rooted in some physical circumstance, not in our true inner self. It is a continual struggle not to listen to the moods which arise as a result of our physical condition, but we must never submit to them for a second. We have to pick ourselves up by the back of the neck and shake ourselves; then we will find that we can do what we believed we were unable to do. The problem that most of us are cursed with is simply that we won’t. The Christian life is one of spiritual courage and determination lived out in our flesh.

---

真實的領域

你們常存忍耐，就必保存靈魂。 （路二十一19）

人重生了，他的思想和理智有一段時候就沒有往日那樣明達。我們要把新生命表現出來，要培養基督的心。 [要用忍耐保存靈魂。 ]我們大多數人寧可站在信徒生活的門檻上，而不根據神所賦予裡頭的新生命來建立自己的靈命。我們失敗，是因為不明白自己的本相，在許多事上，只一意抵賴魔鬼，而不歸咎在自己那不受約束的本性上。試想想我們受激動時那副樣子便可知了。

有些事是我們不可祈求的：例如情緒。情緒不是禱告可以驅散的，是要一腳把它踢開。人的情緒，多半是根據肉體的情況而定，與德性無關。要經常竭力拒絕聽從因肉體情況而生髮的情緒，一秒鐘也不可容讓。我們要揪著自己的領口，振作起來，就會發覺能夠做自己以為不能做的事。我們不肯做，就成了自己的咒詛。信徒的生命，是屬靈勇氣在肉身的一種表現。

祈禱◆主啊，為著你的說話－－[你們常存忍耐，就必保存靈魂]－－我讚美你。當我正按著你的心意，努力要得著靈魂時，為著你那將要臨到的恩典，我讚美你。