看哪,他驾云降临。(启一7)

在圣经里,云总与神有关。云就是我们个人生命中里里外外的悲哀痛苦,这些似乎与神的本质相违,但神的灵却正用这些云教我们在信心中行走。若没有云,就无法有信心。“云不过是我父脚下的尘。”云是他在这里的记号。当我们明白愁苦是与神一起来的云,那是何等的启示啊!没有云,神就无法就近,他不会万丈光芒地来。

不要说神要在试炼中教导我们什么,其实他要用每一朵云,去掉我们学的一些东西。神用云的目的,是要简化我们的信心,直到我们与他的关系像一个小孩子一样——只有神和我,别人不过是影儿。别人若不成为影儿,云和黑暗就必不断临到。我与神的关系,是否日益单纯?神的奇妙旨意和我们对他的认识有一定的关系;我们必须学习在认识神的光中,明白生命中的奥秘。除非我们能够直面最黑暗的事实而不损害上帝的品格,否则我们还未认识他。

“他们进入云里,就甚惧怕……”在你的云里“除耶稣以外”,还有谁?若有,那云就会愈变愈黑。你一定要“不见一人,只见耶稣”。

祈祷◆噢,我的父神,云彩只是你足下的尘土!当恐惧过后,让我在神的眷佑、或神的属性、或神的恩典的每朵云彩中,不见别人,只见耶稣,直至恐惧不再存在。

July 29: What Do You See In Your Clouds?

“Behold, He cometh with clouds.” Revelation 1:7

In the Bible clouds are always connected with God. Clouds are those sorrows or sufferings or providences, within or without our personal lives, which seem to dispute the rule of God. It is by those very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were no clouds, we should have no faith. “The clouds are but the dust of our Father’s feet.” The clouds are a sign that He is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow and bereavement and suffering are the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near without clouds, He does not come in clear shining.

It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials: through every cloud He brings, He wants us to unlearn something. His purpose in the cloud is to simplify our belief until our relationship to Him is exactly that of a child – God and my own soul, other people are shadows. Until other people become shadows, clouds and darkness will be mine every now and again. Is the relationship between myself and God getting simpler than ever it has been?

There is a connection between the strange providences of God and what we know of Him, and we have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God. Unless we can look the darkest, blackest fact full in the face without damaging God’s character, we do not yet know Him.

“They feared as they entered the cloud . . .” – Is there anyone “save Jesus only” in your cloud? If so, it will get darker; you must get to the place where there is “no one any more save Jesus only.”