3月30日 對神柔順還是剛硬？

他見無人拯救、無人代求，甚為詫異。（賽五十九16）

不少人禱告半途而廢，對神硬心，是由於對禱告只有一種情感上的興趣。“我們有禱告呀！”聽起來很不錯。讀點關於禱告的書，知道禱告很有益——使思想安靜、靈性高升。可是，以賽亞卻暗示說，神對這種禱告的觀念大感驚奇。

敬拜與代求必須同時進行，兩者是缺一不可的。代求是我們催逼自己去體會主耶穌對所代求的人迫切的心情。但多少時候，我們不是敬拜神，而是在堆砌禱詞。我們到底在敬拜，還是與神爭論？——“我看不出你（神）有什麼辦法。”這明明就不是敬拜。一旦看不見神，我們就變得硬心主觀。我們把所求的事，扔在神寶座之前，並指明要他怎樣做。我們不是在敬拜，也沒有尋求主基督的心意。向神硬心，對人也必然沒有憐憫。

我們向神敬拜，是否提升到有主的心，使我們能為別人代求？我們是否與神活在聖潔的關係上？還是剛硬武斷？“無人真正好好地代求。”那麼，你就做那代求的人吧！敬拜神，活在聖潔的關係裡；投入真正的代求工作裡。要記住：代求是一種工作，是需要一切能力的工作。然而，傳講福音會遇到許多意想不到的困難和陷阱，代禱卻不會。

祈禱◆噢，主啊，我的靈魂將安息在你這位世界的創造者，以及那位在我裡面創造生命的主耶穌基督裡。噢，求你賜下聖靈的能力，讓我更完全地敬拜你。

March 30 Holiness V. Hardness Towards God

“And He . . . wondered that there was no intercessor.” Isaiah 59:16

The reason many of us leave off praying and become hard towards God is because we have only a sentimental interest in prayer. It sounds right to say that we pray; we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial, that our minds are quieted and our souls uplifted when we pray; but Isaiah implies that God is amazed at such thoughts of prayer.

Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray. Too often instead of worshipping God, we construct statements as to how prayer works. Are we worshipping or are we in dispute with God – “I don’t see how You are going to do it.” This is a sure sign that we are not worshipping. When we lose sight of God we become hard and dogmatic. We hurl our own petitions at God’s throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ. If we are hard towards God, we will become hard towards other people.

Are we so worshipping God that we rouse ourselves up to lay hold on Him so that we may be brought into contact with His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship to God, or are we hard and dogmatic?

“But there is no one interceding properly” – then be that one yourself, be the one who worships God and who lives in holy relationship to Him. Get into the real work of intercession, and remember it is a work, a work that taxes every power; but a work which has no snare. Preaching the gospel has a snare; intercessory prayer has none.