3月7日 不朽的喜樂

然而靠著愛我們的主，在這一切的事上，已經得勝有餘了。（羅八37）

保羅列舉許多的事情，似乎會把聖徒與神的愛隔開；但奇特的是，沒有任何事物可以將聖徒與神的愛隔絕。這些事可以而且實際的進入人的事奉操練中，隔開了神，叫個人的生命與神分開。但是，絕沒有一樣能插入神的愛與聖徒的心靈中間。我們信仰的基石，就是神在加略十架上彰顯出來那高深莫測、奇妙無比的愛，這愛是我們永遠不配得的。保羅說正因為這緣故，我們在這一切事上已經得勝有餘，成為超然的得勝者；在那似乎要把我們制服的事上，獲得無比的喜樂。

游泳者所懼怕的波濤，對滑浪者卻是駕浪淩空的賞心樂事。應用在我們的身上，這些事——患難、困苦、逼迫——在我們裡面卻生出喜樂來；這些事不是我們爭鬥的物件、藉著他，我們在這一切困擾裡面已經得勝有餘。不是“儘管”有這些也得勝，乃是置身其中仍然得勝。信徒從來不會因為“徒有”患難，就體會主裡的喜樂，乃是由於在患難之中而體會到的。保羅說：“我在患難中格外喜樂。”

不絕的喜樂，並非建築在短暫的事上，乃是在神永不改變的愛上。人生的經歷不論是可怕的或是單調的，都無法影響神的愛，這愛是在我們的主基督耶穌裡的。

祈禱◆主啊，為著如今在我生命中的喜樂——妻兒之愛、所教的學生、聖靈的恩惠——我讚美你。它們所帶來的喜樂和福氣，是何等奇妙！

March 7 Undaunted Radiance

“Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” Romans 8:37

Paul is speaking of the things that might seem likely to separate or wedge in between the saint and the love of God; but the remarkable thing is that nothing can wedge in between the love of God and the saint. These things can and do come in between the devotional exercises of the soul and God and separate individual life from God; but none of them is able to wedge in between the love of God and the soul of the saint. The bedrock of our Christian faith is the unmerited, fathomless marvel of the love of God exhibited on the Cross of Calvary, a love we never can and never shall merit. Paul says this is the reason we are more than conquerors in all these things, super-victors, with a joy we would not have but for the very things which look as if they are going to overwhelm us.

The surf that distresses the ordinary swimmer produces in the surf-rider the super-joy of going clean through it. Apply that to our own circumstances, these very things – tribulation, distress, persecution, produce in us the super-joy; they are not things to fight. We are more than conquerors through Him in all these things, not in spite of them, but in the midst of them. The saint never knows the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it – “I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation,” says Paul.

Undaunted radiance is not built on anything passing, but on the love of God that nothing can alter. The experiences of life, terrible or monotonous, are impotent to touch the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.