一月二十一日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/01/0121.mp3″]
经文: 参孙甚觉口渴，就求告耶和华说，你既藉仆人的手施行这么大的拯救，岂可任我渴死？（士师记十五：18）
参孙感到口渴甚至觉得快要死了。这位英雄以前从未遇到过这样的难处。能解渴与从一千个非利士人手中被解救出来相比，实在微不足道。但是当参孙口渴时，他感到目前这一点点难处比过去那巨大的难处还要沉重难当。那一次，上帝行神迹使他获救。在上帝的百姓中，这是相当平常的。他们会为大拯救而欢欣，但面临小小的难处就觉得太过份了。参孙杀死了一千非利士人，将尸体堆成小山，接着却为口渴觉得几乎要死！雅各在毗努伊勤与上帝较力，胜了全能者，然而大腿却病了（创卅十二：31）。上帝似手必须教导我们认识自己的微小，一无所有，为要保守我们在祂里面。参孙真实地夸口说：“我杀了一千人。”不久，那夸口的喉咙因干渴而沙哑，他开始祈求。上帝有许许多多使人谦卑的方法。亲爱的孩子啊，倘若上帝的大恩使你降得十分低下，你不要以为不寻常。当大卫登上以色列的王位时，他说：“我虽然受膏为王，今日还是软弱。”（撒下三：39）。当你正欣赏自己的极大胜利时，也必须同时感到十分软弱。在过去的日子中，上帝若赐你大拯救，目前，你的因难只不过像参孙的干渴。主不会让你昏厥或允许仇敌胜过你。以参孙的话振作你心，坚信不久上帝必解救你。
Evening, January 21
Scripture: “He was sore athirst, and called on the Lord, and said, thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst?”(Judges 15:18)
Samson was thirsty and ready to die. The difficulty was totally different from any which the hero had met before. Merely to get thirst assuaged is nothing like so great a matter as to be delivered from a thousand Philistines! but when the thirst was upon him, Samson felt that little present difficulty more weighty than the great past difficulty out of which he had so specially been delivered. It is very usual for God’s people, when they have enjoyed a great deliverance, to find a little trouble too much for them. Samson slays a thousand Philistines, and piles them up in heaps, and then faints for a little water! Jacob wrestles with God at Peniel, and overcomes Omnipotence itself, and then goes “halting on his thigh!” Strange that there must be a shrinking of the sinew whenever we win the day. As if the Lord must teach us our littleness, our nothingness, in order to keep us within bounds. Samson boasted right loudly when he said, “I have slain a thousand men.” His boastful throat soon grew hoarse with thirst, and he betook himself to prayer. God has many ways of humbling his people. Dear child of God, if after great mercy you are laid very low, your case is not an unusual one. When David had mounted the throne of Israel, he said, “I am this day weak, though anointed king.” You must expect to feel weakest when you are enjoying your greatest triumph. If God has wrought for you great deliverances in the past, your present difficulty is only like Samson’s thirst, and the Lord will not let you faint, nor suffer the daughter of the uncircumcised to triumph over you. The road of sorrow is the road to heaven, but there are wells of refreshing water all along the route. So, tried brother, cheer your heart with Samson’s words, and rest assured that God will deliver you ere long.