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經文：「我必使我的眾山成為大道。」（賽49:11） 神常常利用障礙來成就祂的旨意，所以在我們的生活中都會遇到自己的「眾山」：無論是威嚇與阻礙我們屬靈生活前進的人們；苛刻的要求；不符合自己性情的職業；肉體上的刺；每天的十字架等等。我們常常在想：只要能將這些障礙除去，我們的生活就會變得更純粹、更溫柔、更聖潔；所以我們總是求神將它們除去。 「無知的人哪...你們的心...太遲鈍了！」（路24:25）；這些正是成功的條件；是神放在生活中，讓我們得到恩惠和品格的方法。也許你正在面對一件無法忍受的試煉，每當遇見就想逃避閃躲，認為它是你成功的障礙，心想只要將它除去，就能立刻得到釋放和勝利。 但事實並非如此！當你逃避試煉以後，所能得到的，只有急躁，沒有忍耐。因為忍耐只有在難以忍受的試煉中才能獲得。 繼續操練吧，做一個擁有主的忍耐品格的人，得勝在祂裡面的一切試煉！要記得在你生活中的困擾和煩惱，沒有甚麼是徒然的；它們都是眾山，是神所安排的。因為「神明白智慧的所在。因祂鑒察直到地極，遍觀普天之下」（伯28:23-24）；當我們走到山腳下時，就能看見智慧的道路了。--梅爾 Meyer 試煉的意義，不只是試驗一件事物的價值，更是增加這件事物的價值；正如風雨不只是擊打橡樹，並且增加橡樹的堅韌。 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "I will make all my mountains a way" (Isa.49:11). God will make obstacles serve His purpose. We all have mountains in our lives. There are people and things that threaten to bar our progress in the Divine life. Those heavy claims, that uncongenial occupation, that thorn in the flesh, that daily cross--we think that if only these were removed we might live purer, tenderer, holier lives; and often we pray for their removal. "Oh, fools, and slow of heart!" These are the very conditions of achievement; they have been put into our lives as the means to the very graces and virtues for which we have been praying so long. Thou hast prayed for patience through long years, but there is something that tries thee beyond endurance; thou hast fled from it, evaded it, accounted it an unsurmountable obstacle to the desired attainment, and supposed that its removal would secure thy immediate deliverance and victory. Not so! Thou wouldest gain only the cessation of temptations to impatience. But this would not be patience. Patience can be acquired only through just such trials as now seem unbearable. Go back; submit thyself. Claim to be a partaker in the patience of Jesus. Meet thy trials in Him. There is nothing in life which harasses and annoys that may not become subservient to the highest ends. They are His mountains. He puts them there. We know that God will not fail to keep His promise. "God understandeth the way thereof and knoweth the place thereof. For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven"; and when we come to the foot of the mountains, we shall find the way.--Christ in Isaiah, by Meyer "The meaning of trial is not only to test worthiness, but to increase it; as the oak is not only tested by the storm, but toughened by them." ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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