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經文：「主又說...撒但想要得著你們，好篩你們，像篩麥子一樣，但我巳經為你祈求，叫你不至於失了信心。」（路22:31-32） 神試驗我們的方式，就像把我們的信心當作箭靶來射擊；而等待試驗的諸多品格中，信心是絕對的重點之一。關於信心的試煉，最難的就是被世人遺棄。在那些時刻，神彷彿把我們喜樂的外衣剝奪，讓我們遭受許多恐懼戰兢的經歷，以觀看我們的信心在試煉中會不會受到影響。因為眞實的信心是不致輕易動搖的。--司布眞 C. H. Spurgeon 保羅說：「所信的道我已經守住了。」（提後4:7）；雖然他失去了生命。人雖然能斬殺他的身體，卻不能斬去他的信心。這位外邦人的大使徒自許的有三件事：「那美好的仗我已經打過了；當跑的路我已經跑盡了；所信的道我已經守住了。」；他獲得了勝利，也贏得了獎賞；他不但在地上受景仰，他更在天上得稱讚。其餘一切還算得了甚麼？ 我們為甚麼不能像保羅那樣將萬事當作有損的，為要得著基督？為甚麼不能像他那樣忠於眞理？這是因為我們沒有他的算法！他的算法和我們不一樣；我們算作得著的，他算作有損。如果我們想要學他一樣得冠冕，就必須有他那般的信心，並且像他一樣守住信心。--選 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "And the Lord said . . . Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not" (Luke 22:31, 32). Our faith is the center of the target at which God doth shoot when He tries us; and if any other grace shall escape untried, certainly faith shall not. There is no way of piercing faith to its very marrow like the sticking of the arrow of desertion into it; this finds it out whether it be of the immortals or no. Strip it of its armor of conscious enjoyment, and suffer the terrors of the Lord to set themselves in array against it; and that is faith indeed which can escape unhurt from the midst of the attack. Faith must be tried, and seeming desertion is the furnace, heated seven times, into which it might be thrust. Blest the man who can endure the ordeal!--C. H. Spurgeon. Paul said, "I have kept the faith," but he lost his head! They cut that off, but it didn't touch his faith. He rejoiced in three things--this great Apostle to the Gentiles; he had "fought a good fight," he had "finished his course," he had "kept the faith." What did all the rest amount to? St. Paul won the race; he gained the prize, and he has not only the admiration of earth today, but the admiration of Heaven. Why do we not act as if it paid to lose all to win Christ? Why are we not loyal to truth as he was? Ah, we haven't his arithmetic. He counted differently from us; we count the things gain that he counted loss. We must have his faith, and keep it if we would wear the same crown. ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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