你们常存忍耐，就必保存灵魂。（路二十一19）
人重生了，他的思想和理智有一段时候就没有往日那样明达。我们要把新生命表现出来，要培养基督的心。“要用忍耐保存灵魂。”我们大多数人宁可站在信徒生活的门槛上，而不根据神所赋予里头的新生命来建立自己的灵命。我们失败，是因为不明白自己的本相，在许多事上，只一意抵赖魔鬼，而不归咎在自己那不受约束的本性上。试想想我们受激动时那副样子便可知了。
有些事是我们不可祈求的：例如情绪。情绪不是祷告可以驱散的，是要一脚把它踢开。人的情绪，多半是根据肉体的情况而定，与德性无关。要经常竭力拒绝听从因肉体情况而生发的情绪，一秒钟也不可容让。我们要揪着自己的领口，振作起来，就会发觉能够做自己以为不能做的事。我们不肯做，就成了自己的咒诅。信徒的生命，是属灵勇气在肉身的一种表现。
祈祷◆主啊，为着你的说话－－“你们常存忍耐，就必保存灵魂"－－我赞美你。当我正按着你的心意，努力要得着灵魂时，为着你那将要临到的恩典，我赞美你。
May 20 The Realm Of The Real
“In your patience possess ye your souls.” Luke 21:19
When a man is born again, there is not the same robustness in his thinking or reasoning for a time as formerly. We have to make an expression of the new life, to form the mind of Christ. “Acquire your soul with patience.” Many of us prefer to stay at the threshold of the Christian life instead of going on to construct a soul in accordance with the new life God has put within. We fail because we are ignorant of the way we are made, we put things down to the devil instead of our own undisciplined natures. Think what we can be when we are roused!
There are certain things we must not pray about – moods, for instance. Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking. A mood nearly always has its seat in the physical condition, not in the moral. It is a continual effort not to listen to the moods which arise from a physical condition, never submit to them for a second. We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and shake ourselves, and we will find that we can do what we said we could not. The curse with most of us is that we won't. The Christian life is one of incarnate spiritual pluck.