你在无花果树底下,我就看见你了。(约一48)

我们以为面临重大关头的时候,自己可以应付得来;可是,重大关头只会揭露我们的本相,不会给我们加增什么。“要是神呼召我,我当然会奋起直追。”除非你已经在操练中起来应对临到的环境,除非你在神面前有真材实料;否则在重大关头时你必不能应付。倘若现在你连神在你身旁安排的事也不做,当重大关头来到,你不但担当不起,反而显得不合用。危机往往能把人的本性显露出来。

在隐秘处敬拜神的关系,是人合用与否的先决条件。时候到了,不会再有“无花果树下”的生活,你要出到外头,在日光之下工作。那时你会发现,如果你没有在家中一如既往地敬拜神,此时就毫无价值。所以在隐秘处和神有正确的敬拜态度与关系,当神释放你,你才准备好。因为在除神以外无人看见的隐藏生活中你已变得完全合用。考验来到,神才可以倚重你。

“现今的环境不容我过成圣的生活,我现在没有时间读经祷告,我的机会还未来到,若时机一到,我自然可以应付。” 错!你若不经常在日常生活敬拜主,一旦做神的工作,你不但自己无用,更会成为同工极大的障碍。

圣徒私下隐藏的,个人的敬拜生活,乃是神的训练场地,是传道者的弹药所在。

祈祷◆噢,主,我的神,帮助我敬拜你。为着你的恒久不变,我赞美你。感动我,噢,主啊,藉着你的能力更新我的灵,使它对你和你的真理更加渴慕与感激。

September 10: Missionary Munitions

“When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.” John 1:48

We imagine we would be all right if a big crisis arose; but the big crisis will only reveal the stuff we are made of, it will not put anything into us. “If God gives the call, of course I will rise to the occasion.” You will not unless you have risen to the occasion in the workshop, unless you have been the real thing before God there. If you are not doing the thing that lies nearest, because God has engineered it; when the crisis comes instead of being revealed as fit, you will be revealed as unfit. Crises always reveal character.

The private relationship of worshipping God is the great essential of fitness. The time comes when there is no more “fig-tree” life possible, when it is out into the open, out into the glare and into the work, and you will find yourself of no value there if you have not been worshipping as occasion serves you in your home. Worship aright in your private relationships, then when God sets you free you will be ready, because in the unseen life which no one saw but God you have become perfectly fit, and when the strain comes you can be relied upon by God.

“I can’t be expected to live the sanctified life in the circumstances I am in; I have no time for praying just now, no time for Bible reading, my opportunity hasn’t come yet; when it does, of course I shall be all right.” No, you will not. If you have not been worshipping as occasion serves, when you get into work you will not only be useless yourself, but a tremendous hindrance to those who are associated with you.

The workshop of missionary munitions is the hidden, personal, worshipping life of the saint.