2月22日 属灵韧力的操练

你们要休息_{（英文作安静）}，要知道我是神。（诗四十六10）

坚韧不单是忍耐，乃是在忍耐之上，加上绝对的肯定，知道所期待的必然实现。坚韧也不单是持定，那可能只是怕倒下来的软弱。坚韧是以最大的努力，拒绝相信他所尊崇的英雄会被打败。一个门徒最深的恐惧，不是他会被定罪，而是耶稣基督被贬低，叫他所代表的一切——对人的爱、公义、饶恕和仁慈，至终不能奏凯；而他所表彰的一切只像电光一闪而过。这是，属灵的坚韧力叫我们不要徒然持守而无所事事，乃是著实地作工，确信神绝不被挫败。

若我们的盼望似乎幻灭了，那正是进行洁净的工夫。人心里一切所想所求，都必一一实现。生命中最竭尽心力的事，莫过于等候神。“你遵守了我忍耐之道。”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，今天让你那伟大、使人尊贵和叫人鼓舞的感动临到我们每个人身上。让我们完全不用惊慌，而我们的心灵亦免于过分的追赶。

February 22 The Discipline Of Spiritual Tenacity

“Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

Tenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire. Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be but the weakness of being too afraid to fall off. Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered. The greatest fear a man has is not that he will be damned, but that Jesus Christ will be worsted, that the things He stood for – love and justice and forgiveness and kindness among men – will not win out in the end; the things He stands for look like will-o'-the-wisps. Then comes the call to spiritual tenacity, not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately on the certainty that God is not going to be worsted.

If our hopes are being disappointed just now, it means that they are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled. One of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God. “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience.”

Remain spiritually tenacious.