2月19日 应付苦差的动力

兴起发光（赛六十1）

我们踏上第一步，好像神没有在那里一般。空等神来帮助是无济于事的，他不会来；然而当我们有所行动，就发现他在那里了。神的感动往往是道德性的。我们不要老是呆在那里，像一根方木似的，是要起来行动。只要兴起发光，苦差便在神的光中变相。

苦差是磨练人最佳的试金石。苦差不是理想的工作，而是最低贱的工作。但一触及这些工作，就立刻知道我们的属灵情况。约翰福音十三章记载：道成肉身的神作了一件最不讨好的苦差，就是洗渔夫的脚。他说：“我是你们的主，尚且洗你们的脚，你们也当彼此洗脚。”苦差需要神的感动，有神的光照在其中。有些人做一件事，便有好的表现，使那件事染上光彩。可能是一件极普通的事，但当他们做过之后，就完全不同了。每当主叫我们做事，他总叫那事变了形象。我们的主披上了血肉之体，叫它改变形象，使之成为圣徒圣灵的殿。

祈祷◆让神的气息吹向我，直至我的意念和心灵能适当地调校向你。求你在我们当中和我们心内，散发自由、纯洁和能力。

February 19 The Initiative Against Drudgery

“Arise, shine.” Isaiah 60:1

We have to take the first step as though there were no God. It is no use to wait for God to help us, He will not; but immediately we arise we find He is there. Whenever God inspires, the initiative is a moral one. We must do the thing and not lie like a log. If we will arise and shine, drudgery becomes divinely transfigured.

Drudgery is one of the finest touchstones of character there is. Drudgery is work that is very far removed from anything to do with the ideal – the utterly mean grubby things; and when we come in contact with them we know instantly whether or not we are spiritually real. Read John 13. We see there the Incarnate God doing the most desperate piece of drudgery, washing fishermen's feet, and He says – “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet.” It requires the inspiration of God to go through drudgery with the light of God upon it. Some people do a certain thing and the way in which they do it hallows that thing for ever afterwards. It may be the most commonplace thing, but after we have seen them do it, it becomes different. When the Lord does a thing through us, He always transfigures it. Our Lord took on Him our human flesh and transfigured it, and it has become for every saint the temple of the Holy Ghost.