8月3日 神的催逼

看哪，我們上耶路撒冷去。(路十八31)

在主耶穌的生命中，耶路撒冷是他成就父神旨意的頂峰。“我不求自己的意思，只求那差我來者的意思。”在救主的一生中，這是他唯一最大的關注。路途上所遇的一切，不論憂喜成敗，從不使他偏離這個目標。

“他就定意向耶路撒冷去。”最重要的是知道上耶路撒冷去，是要完成神的計劃，而不是我們自己的計劃。很自然的，雄心是出於我們自己；但在信徒的生命中，該沒有自己的目標。今天太多人提出自己為基督而作的決定－－我們決志作基督徒，我們決定做這做那－－但新約帶出的資訊，卻是神自己的催逼。

“不是你們揀選了我，是我揀選了你們。”我們並未有意識地同意神的計劃，乃是在不知不覺中進到神的計劃裡去。我們根本不知道神怎樣籌算，而且一日比一日模糊。神的目標似乎總是達不到，其實是因為我們太短視，看不見他的目標。初信之時，我們對神的計劃有自己的想法－－“我應該到某處某處。”“神呼召我作這特別的工作。”於是，我們去了，做了，但神的催逼依然存在。我們所作的工算不得什麼，與神的催逼比較，不過是平臺架而已。“耶穌帶著十二個門徒。”他不住地帶領著我們，我們還有許多未進入之地。

祈禱◆噢，主啊，我來到你面前；無論自覺或非自覺地，我懷著極大的需要靠近你。求你為著你的榮耀高舉我、帶領我、充滿我，使我能和諧地配合你的計劃和旨意。

August 3 The Big Compelling Of God

“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem.” Luke 18:31

Jerusalem stands in the life of Our Lord as the place where He reached the climax of His Father's will. “I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me.” That was the one dominating interest all through our Lord's life, and the things He met with on the way, joy or sorrow, success or failure, never deterred Him from His purpose. “He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.”

The great thing to remember is that we go up to Jerusalem to fulfil God's purpose, not our own. Naturally, our ambitions are our own; in the Christian life we have no aim of our own. There is so much said today about our decisions for Christ, our determination to be Christians, our decisions for this and that, but in the New Testament it is the aspect of God's compelling that is brought out. “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.” We are not taken up into conscious agreement with God's purpose, we are taken up into God's purpose without any consciousness at all. We have no conception of what God is aiming at, and as we go on it gets more and more vague. God's aim looks like missing the mark because we are too short sighted to see what He is aiming at. At the beginning of the Christian life we have our own ideas as to what God's purpose is – ‘I am meant to go here or there,’ ‘God has called me to do this special work’; and we go and do the thing, and still the big compelling of God remains. The work we do is of no account, it is so much scaffolding compared with the big compelling of God. “He took unto Him the twelve,” He takes us all the time. There is more than we have got at as yet.