从天上赐下的复兴
神在睡觉?

经文
诗篇四十四13-26
13你使我们受邻国的羞辱,被四围的人嗤笑讥刺。
14你使我们在列邦中作了笑谈,使众民向我们摇头。
15我的凌辱终日在我面前,我脸上的羞愧将我遮蔽,
16都因那辱骂毁谤人的声音,又因仇敌和报仇人的缘故。
17这都临到我们身上,我们却没有忘记你,也没有违背你的约。
18我们的心没有退后;我们的脚也没有偏离你的路。
19你在野狗之处压伤我们,用死荫遮蔽我们。
20倘若我们忘了神的名,或向别神举手,
21神岂不鉴察这事吗?因为他晓得人心里的隐秘。
22我们为你的缘故终日被杀;人看我们如将宰的羊。
23主啊,求你睡醒,为何尽睡呢?求你兴起,不要永远丢弃我们!
24你为何掩面,不顾我们所遭的苦难和所受的欺压?
25我们的性命伏于尘土;我们的肚腹紧贴地面。
26求你起来帮助我们!凭你的慈爱救赎我们!
信息分享
我们已经讨论过「复兴祷告」的两个特点是热诚和持久;而「复兴祷告」的第三个特点是大胆和坦率。在阅读和研究这个课题时,对于神的百姓祈求祂赐下复兴时,用那么大胆和坦率的说话,我实在感到十分惊讶。
我们可在今天的经文中看到这个特点,诗人好像责怪神在工作时睡觉,试看一下摩法特(Moffatt)译本所用的生动语言:「永恒者啊,振作一下吧!为何睡觉?醒来吧!啊,不要永远抛弃我们!为何你要隐藏你的脸,忘记我们的哀伤和沮丧?我们的灵魂要伏向尘土。」诗人这种语言是何等的强烈和坦率,然而说服神正是需要这种态度和语言。
请注意我是说态度和语言,你和我都可以来到神的面前用类似的语言,但若没有诗人所感受到的那种神圣的绝望,反倒会显得虚假和空洞,甚至是鲁莽无礼。由于诗人意识到周边属灵力量正在退减,令他感到神是睡着了,需要被唤醒,诗人对周遭衰败的情况是那么关切,以致他就算使用这么强烈的语言也变成恰当和蒙应允。当我们与诗人对周围道德和灵性的衰败有同样深刻的感受时,我们也可以像诗人一样用如此强烈的话语来表达。不过,除非我们亦预备仿傚诗人那股对属灵关注的深刻之情,否则便不能模仿诗人的说话。
「强烈的说话必须伴随深刻的感情」
进深研究
约壹三16-22;来四16,十三6
1. 为甚么我们可以有信心的走到神面前?
2. 我们可以有信心地说甚么?
祈祷
神啊,我此刻所关注的不是您是否清醒,而是我是否清醒的察觉到周围迫切的需要。亲爱的主,求您唤醒我,并帮助我大胆地祷告。奉耶稣的名祈求,阿们。
Heaven-Sent Revival
God - sleeping on the job?

Bible reading:
Psalm 44:13-26
13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us.
14 You have made us a byword among the nations; the peoples shake their heads at us.
15 I live in disgrace all day long, and my face is covered with shame
16 at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me, because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.
17 All this came upon us, though we had not forgotten you; we had not been false to your covenant.
18 Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path.
19 But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals; you covered us over with deep darkness.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?
22 Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
23 Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.
24 Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?
25 We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground.
26 Rise up and help us; rescue us because of your unfailing love.
Message
A third characteristic of "revival praying" is boldness or directness. Here again I have been struck, as I have read and researched this subject, by the daring and direct language used by God's people when pleading with Him to send revival.
We can see something of this in the verses that are before us today. The psalmist appears to be accusing God of sleeping on the job. Listen to the graphic language used in the Moffatt translation of this passage: "Bestir thyself, Eternal one! Why sleep? Awaken! ah discard us not for ever! Why art thou hiding thy face, forgetful of our woe and our distress? For our soul is bowed to the dust." This language of the psalmist is forceful and direct but it is the kind of attitude and language that prevails with God.
Notice I say attitude as well as language. You and I can come before God and use similar language but if it is not accompanied by the kind of holy desperation that the psalmist felt, then it will sound false and hollow - even impertinent. Such was the spiritual decline around him that it looked to the psalmist as if God was asleep and needing arousing. His deep concern over the declining conditions with which he was surrounded made his language appropriate and permissible. When we feel as strongly about the moral and spiritual bankruptcy that surround us as the psalmist felt in his day, then we can speak as strongly as he did. We dare not copy the words unless we are also prepared to copy the psalmist's deep spiritual concern.
"Strong words must be accompanied by strong feelings"
Prayer
O God, my concern at this moment is not so much whether You are awake but whether I am awake - awake to the urgent needs that lie all around me. Wake me up, dear Lord, and help me pray with boldness. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.
Further study
1 John 3:16-22
Hebrews 4:16; 13:6
1. Why can we come to God with confidence?
2. What can we say with confidence?
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