7月7日 尊贵的事不易做

“你们要进窄门。因为……引到永生，那门是窄的，路是小的，找着的人也少。”马太福音7：13－14

如果我们准备像耶稣的门徒那样去生活，我们就要记住所有崇高的事情都是艰难的事。基督徒的生活是极为艰难的，但是这艰难不是让我们软弱投降，而是要激起我们去战胜困难。我们是否深深感激耶稣基督那无比的救恩而竭尽全力为他而活呢？

神因着他至高无上的恩典，藉着耶稣的挽回祭拯救人；我们立志行事都是他在我们里面运行，为要讨他的喜悦；但我们必须在实际的生活里把这救恩行出来。一旦我们开始站在他救赎的根基上去遵行他的命令，我们会发现我们是可以做到的。如果我们失败了，这是因为我们还不够老练。危机会揭露出我们是否一直在实践他的命令。如果我们顺服神的灵，并在我们肉身里实行神藉着他的灵放在我们里面的命令，当危机来的时候，我们就会发现我们的本性和神的恩典都会支援我们过去。

感谢神给了我们困难的事情去做！他的拯救是令人高兴的，但同时也是伟大的、圣洁的。它测试我们是否配得。耶稣要把许多“儿子”带进荣耀里，神不会让我们逃避作为“儿子”的要求。神的恩典使人转变成为耶稣基督的样式，而不是成为一个懦夫。在实际的生活中活出耶稣门徒的生命需要许许多多的操练。成为高尚是需要付出努力的。

July 7 All Noble Things Are Difficult

“Enter ye in at the strait gate . . because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way. . .” Matthew 7:13-14

If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Do we so appreciate the marvellous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?

God saves men by His sovereign grace through the Atonement of Jesus; He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure; but we have to work out that salvation in practical living. If once we start on the basis of His Redemption to do what He commands, we find that we can do it. If we fail, it is because we have not practised. The crisis will reveal whether we have been practising or not. If we obey the Spirit of God and practise in our physical life what God has put in us by His Spirit, then when the crisis comes, we shall find that our own nature as well as the grace of God will stand by us.

Thank God He does give us difficult things to do! His salvation is a glad thing, but it is also a heroic, holy thing. It tests us for all we are worth. Jesus is bringing many “sons” unto glory, and God will not shield us from the requirements of a son. God's grace turns out men and women with a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, not milk sops. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the noble life of a disciple of Jesus in actual things. It is always necessary to make an effort to be noble.