双语灵修（葛培理牧师）：8 月 23 日 信的喜乐

8 月 23 日

信的喜乐

但愿使人有盼望的神，因信，将诸般的喜乐平安，充满你们的心，使你们藉着圣灵的能力，大有盼望。

罗马书 15:13

耶稣说：“你们心里不要忧愁；你们信神，也当信我”（约翰福音 14:1）。当信心坚固时，忧愁就变得微不足道了。

在悲伤中可以得到安慰，因为在悲伤中神会赐给你一首歌。神在约伯记 30:9 中说，“这些人以我为歌曲。”  而在约伯记 35:10 ，以利户问：“造我的神在哪里？祂使人夜间歌唱？” 神在我们的生命中与我们同在，将我们的哀恸变为歌唱，而那首歌是一首安慰的歌，有时要在夜深人静时才能听到。

因为得到这种安慰，一位饱受摧残的英国人，在二战期间他家的房子被炸，地面上被炸出一个又深又黑的洞。他说：“我一直想要一个地下室，真的。现在我可以照我的心愿在这里另建一座房子了。”

因为得到这种安慰，我们附近教会的一位年轻牧师的妻子，就在她丈夫葬礼的当天，她还给主日学的女学生们上课。她的哀伤不是没有指望的哀伤，而是深信神的良善和智慧的哀伤；她深信我们的天父不会出错。

我经常想到圣经中最短的两节经文。“耶稣哭了”，这是两节经文中较短的。但据我所知，在希腊原文中，这节“最短”的经文有三个单词，而帖撒罗尼迦前书 5:16的“常常喜乐”，却只有两个单词。然而，我们不难看出，这两节经文之间美好的关联：基督徒的喜乐源于救主的怜悯和恩典；耶稣哭了——我们常常喜乐。

今日祷告：

天父，求祢使我们与众圣徒一起充满平安和喜乐；奉耶稣的名祷告，阿们。

August 23

JOY IN BELIEVING

May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13, TEV

Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled…believe.. in me”(John 14:1). When faith is strong, troubles become trifles.

There can be comfort in sorrow because in the midst of mourning God gives a song. God says in Job 30:9. “I am their song. ”  In Job 35:10 Elihu asks, “Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night?” His presence in our lives changes our mourning into song, and that song is a song of comfort. Sometimes it must be night to have that song!

This kind of comfort is the kind which enabled a devour Englishman during World War II to look at a deep, dark hole in the ground where his home stood before the bombing and say, “I always did want a basement, I did. Now I can jolly well build another house like I always wanted.”

This kind of comfort is the kind which enabled a young minister’s wife in a church near us to teach her Sunday school class of girls on the very day of her husband’s funeral. Her mourning was not the kind which had no hope-it was a mourning of faith in the goodness and wisdom of God; it believed that our heavenly Father makes no mistakes.

I often think of the two shortest verses in the Bible in this connection. “Jesus wept” is the shorter of the two. But in the original Greek I understand this “shortest” verse has three words whereas the verse from 1 Thessalonians 5:16 (“Rejoice evermore”) has only two. However, it is easy to see the lovely connection between the two verses. The Christian’s joy flows from the sympathy and grace of his Savior. Jesus wept-we rejoice evermore.

Pray for the Day:

Father, fill us with joy and peace, together with all the rest of the believers, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.