二月九日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/02/0209.mp3″]
经文: 不叫我们遇见试探,救我们脱离凶恶。(路加福音十一:4)
主耶稣教导我们在祷告中要寻求或躲避的事,在日常生活中当追求或避免。因此,我们应当迫切地躲避试探。我们必须行走在受严密保护的顺服之路上,使魔鬼欲试探我们之计不能得逞。我们不要进入丛林中去寻找狮子,这一幻想会让我们付出很高的代价。狮子可很能从丛林中剪径而来,跃到我们身上,然而我们并无猎取它的准备。遇见狮子的人,虽然可能是一个得胜的人,仍然会面临到困难的挣扎。但愿基督徒能求上帝使他避免遇见狮子。我们的救主曾经历过试探,所以迫切地警告祂的门徒:“你们要祷告,免得入了迷惑。”(路二十二:40)但是我们无论作什么,都可能受到诱惑,因此主祷文要我们求“救我们脱离凶恶”。(路二十二:40)。上帝只有一个儿子是无罪,但是没有一个儿子不受试探。我们必须时时警戒抵挡撒但,因为它像贼一般,不知不觉就来我们身旁。经历过撒但作为的信徒,知道什么时候是它最可能发动攻击的时刻,如同某些季节我们会期待暴风雨来临一样。因此,基督徒必须作双重之警卫,对危险的畏惧,和当危险来临时,准备好去迎战。即使你是一个得胜者,仍要全副武装使魔鬼不敢攻击你,这总比面对争战的危险更好。今晚求上帝不要让你遇见试探,也求上帝在必须面对试探时,救你脱离凶恶。
Evening, February 9
Scripture: “Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil [or, the evil one].”(Luke 11:4)
What we are taught to seek or shun in prayer, we should equally pursue or avoid in action. Very earnestly, therefore, should we avoid temptation, seeking to walk so guardedly in the path of obedience, that we may never tempt the devil to tempt us. We are not to enter the thicket in search of the lion. Dearly might we pay for such presumption. This lion may cross our path or leap upon us from the thicket, but we have nothing to do with hunting him. He that meeteth with him, even though he winneth the day, will find it a stern struggle. Let the Christian pray that he may be spared the encounter. Our Saviour, who had experience of what temptation meant, thus earnestly admonished his disciples-“Pray that ye enter not into temptation.”
But let us do as we will, we shall be tempted; hence the prayer “deliver us from evil.” God had one Son without sin; but he has no son without temptation. The natural man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards, and the Christian man is born to temptation just as certainly. We must be always on our watch against Satan, because, like a thief, he gives no intimation of his approach. Believers who have had experience of the ways of Satan, know that there are certain seasons when he will most probably make an attack, just as at certain seasons bleak winds may be expected; thus the Christian is put on a double guard by fear of danger, and the danger is averted by preparing to meet it. Prevention is better than cure: it is better to be so well armed that the devil will not attack you, than to endure the perils of the fight, even though you come off a conqueror. Pray this evening first that you may not be tempted, and next that if temptation be permitted, you may be delivered from the evil one.