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經文：「我...賜給以色列人的地。」（書1:2） 經文中神說的「賜給」是現在式，不是祂將來要作的事，乃是祂此刻就要作的。憑信求現在賜給，神就現在賜給。神今天就要工作；許多時候我們在祂面前等候，盼望，尋求任何事物，卻並沒有相信。那就仍是我們的盼望與需要，仍舊不是信心；因為「信就是所望之事的實底、是未見之事的確據。」（來11:1） 「所以我告訴你們、凡你們禱告祈求的、無論是甚麼、只要信是得著的、就必得著。」（可11:24）這裡所說信心的禱告，所用的動詞都是現在式，我們有沒有這現在的信心呢？--譯自信宣 Simpson/Joshua 眞實的信心，就是認定神所說的為算數，在未應驗之前就已深信。很自然地，我們常常需要先有眼見或憑據，證明我們所求的已經蒙神應許，然後才肯相信。但若我們要走信心的道路，除了神的話以外，我們並不需要別的憑據。雖然環境儘可和祂所說的相反，但是祂既然說了，必定會按著我們的信心給我們成全的。我們將要看見神話語的應驗，因為我們已經信了。 詩篇的作者說：「我若不信在活人之地，得見耶和華的恩惠，就早已喪膽了。」（詩27:13）他雖然還沒看見神對他的答應，但是他已經相信必然得見；如此就能保守他不致喪膽。 若是擁有「信而得見」的信心，我們就不會灰心，反而要嘲笑那「不可能」。我們可以充滿高興地看神怎樣在紅海--人沒有辦法自己脫離的艱難時刻--開路。在這般的試驗中，我們的信心最容易增長。 親愛的受苦信徒啊，你是不是日夜在等待神，深怕祂已經把你忘了呢？絕不會的，應當抬起頭來，為著那正在路上的拯救開始讚美祂。--譯自讚美的生命 Life of Praise 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "The land which I do give them, even the children of Israel" (Joshua 1:2). God here speaks in the immediate present. It is not something He is going to do, but something He does do, this moment. So faith ever speaks. So God ever gives. So He is meeting you today, in the present moment. This is the test of faith. So long as you are waiting for a thing, hoping for it, looking for it, you are not believing. It may be hope, it may be earnest desire, but it is not faith; for "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The command in regard to believing prayer is the present tense. "When ye pray, believe that ye receive the things that ye desire, and ye shall have them." Have we come to that moment? Have we met God in His everlasting NOW? --Joshua, by Simpson True faith counts on God, and believes before it sees. Naturally, we want some evidence that our petition is granted before we believe; but when we walk by faith we need no other evidence than God's Word. He has spoken, and according to our faith it shall be done unto us. We shall see because we have believed, and this faith sustains us in the most trying places, when everything around us seems to contradict God's Word. The Psalmist says, "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of living" (Ps. 27:13). He did not see as yet the Lord's answer to his prayers, but he believed to see; and this kept him from fainting. If we have the faith that believes to see, it will keep us from growing discouraged. We shall "laugh at impossibilities," we shall watch with delight to see how God is going to open up a path through the Red Sea when there is no human way out of our difficulty. It is just in such places of severe testing that our faith grows and strengthens. Have you been waiting upon God, dear troubled one, during long nights and weary days, and have feared that you were forgotten? Nay, lift up your head, and begin to praise Him even now for the deliverance which is on its way to you. --Life of Praise ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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