奥古斯丁企图逃离神所让他看到的事物，可是他每到一个以为是安全的地方都遭到驱逐。我们必须做钱普尼斯（Thomas Champness）所做的事（也就是我们前几天提到的讲员）。我们必须顺从神让我们看到的事情，并要接受一个事实──神知道甚么是最好。神对钱普尼斯说：「作为讲员，不要在乎你个人的荣誉」，这句话让他挣扎了一段时间，最后才完全的顺服神。后来当被人问到他所付出的代价时，他说：「我经过泰恩河大桥的时候，已把我个人的名誉抛了进河里」。而神给他顺服的回报，让他成为荣耀的灵魂收割者。

请让我提醒你，我们与神展开对话时往往需要冒险，那就是说，当你向神祈求亮光的时候，神所向你显示出来的可能超过你的祈求。它可能令你里面颤抖。不过，当那情况发生时要让它继续下去；如果你满足神的要求，正视光所显示的东西，那颤抖就会过去，你也能印证以赛亚的话的真实：神会「使软弱的手坚壮，无力的膝稳固。对胆怯的人说，你们要刚强，不要惧怕。看哪，你们的神必来……」（赛三十五3-4）。

「神知道甚么才是最好的」

进深研究
约壹1-10，二9；弗五8；林后四6

1. 我们要怎样行？
2. 结果会怎样？

祈祷
天父啊，当我祈求亮光，而那令我慑服的光给我带来我不期望的答案时，求您帮助我不要退缩，勇敢的在光中行走……正如您在光中一样。阿们。

From Confusion to Confidence

Day 79

"March on..."

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (v.9)

Bible reading:
2 Corinthians 12:1-10

1 I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord.

2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows.

3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—

4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.

5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.

6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say,

7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Message

We spend one more day discussing the "pain of answered prayer". What do we do when we receive an answer to our prayers that causes us to tremble in the blinding light of a new revelation? We must go into the light with God. Pain or no pain - there must be no going back - we must march on.

Augustine tried to run away from what God had shown him, but he was driven out of every false place of refuge. We must do what Thomas Champness - the preacher we referred to the other day - did: we must yield to what God has shown us and come to terms with the fact that, after all, God knows best. When God said to Thomas Champness: "You must be careless of your reputation as a preacher," he struggled for a while but eventually he yielded. Speaking of the effort it cost him, he said: "I threw my reputation into the Tyne as I crossed the high-level bridge." In return for his obedience, God made him a glorious harvester of souls.

I remind you again of the risks you take when you enter into dialogue with God. The light you ask for may reveal more than you wish. It may be turned to trembling within you. But I plead with you, when that happens - go on. If you will live up to the demands God makes and face squarely what the light reveals, the trembling will pass and you will prove the truth of Isaiah's words: He will "strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, 'Be strong, do not fear, your God will come... "(Isa 35:3-4).

"God knows best"

Prayer
O Father, in those moments when I am overwhelmed by the light that I asked for but which brought answers I did not expect, help me not to pull back but to walk in the light... as You are in the light. Amen.

Further study
1 John 1:1-10; 2:9
Ephesians 5:8
2 Corinthians 4:6

1. How are we to walk?
2. What will be the result?

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