三月二十九日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/03/0329.mp3″]
经文: 我呼叫祂，祂却不回答。（雅歌五：6）
祷告有时需要等待，如同请愿者在大门外等候直至国王前来垂允。我们的主有时以长久的延宕来试验人是否有大信心。祂允许祂仆人的呼求声在耳中回响，如同从黄铜天空传来的回音。他们在黄金门上敲叩，但是大门没有动静，似乎是铰链锈住了。他们像耶利米一样呼求：“祢以黑云遮蔽自己，以至祷告不得透入。”（哀三：44）。真正的圣徒对未蒙应允的祷告耐心等候，并不是因为他们的祷告不够热切或因为祷告不被接受，这个耽延是祂的心意，因为祂有主权，祂也按照自己的心意赐予。倘若操练我们的耐心会令祂喜悦，祂会按自己的心意让我们去操练。乞丐对于时间，地点或答覆的形式是无可选择的。我们也必须注意不要以为回答之耽延是不蒙垂听。我必不能让撒但就尚未蒙应允之祷告来动摇我们对真理之上帝的信心。未蒙应允的祷告并不是未蒙垂听。在天国的法庭中有一登录薄，每一祷告皆被记录下来。主有一瓶子，其中装载了为上帝的事而忧伤的宝贵眼泪，也有一册子其中记数了你神圣的叹息（参诗五十六：8）。只要再稍作等待，你将得到答覆。祂的时间是最佳时间。祂将应允你所求，祂将脱去你长久等待的麻衣和尘土，给你穿上渴望已久的朱红细麻衣。
Evening, March 29
Scripture: “I called him, but he gave me no answer.”(Song of Solomon 5:6)
Prayer sometimes tarrieth, like a petitioner at the gate, until the King cometh forth to fill her bosom with the blessings which she seeketh. The Lord, when he hath given great faith, has been known to try it by long delayings. He has suffered his servants’ voices to echo in their ears as from a brazen sky. They have knocked at the golden gate, but it has remained immovable, as though it were rusted upon its hinges. Like Jeremiah, they have cried, “Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.” Thus have true saints continued long in patient waiting without reply, not because their prayers were not vehement, nor because they were unaccepted, but because it so pleased him who is a Sovereign, and who gives according to his own pleasure. If it pleases him to bid our patience exercise itself, shall he not do as he wills with his own! Beggars must not be choosers either as to time, place, or form. But we must be careful not to take delays in prayer for denials: God’s long-dated bills will be punctually honoured; we must not suffer Satan to shake our confidence in the God of truth by pointing to our unanswered prayers. Unanswered petitions are not unheard. God keeps a file for our prayers－they are not blown away by the wind, they are treasured in the King’s archives. This is a registry in the court of heaven wherein every prayer is recorded. Tried believer, thy Lord hath a tear-bottle in which the costly drops of sacred grief are put away, and a book in which thy holy groanings are numbered. By-and-by, thy suit shall prevail. Canst thou not be content to wait a little? Will not thy Lord’s time be better than thy time? By-and-by he will comfortably appear, to thy soul’s joy, and make thee put away the sackcloth and ashes of long waiting, and put on the scarlet and fine linen of full fruition.
