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經文：「我們...就當放下各樣的重擔，脫去容易纏累我們的罪，存心忍耐，奔那擺在我們前頭的路程。」（來12:1） 許多時候，重擔本身並不是罪，但是會使人分心，是生命成長的障礙。其中最有害的是灰心；而它就是一個將我們向下拉扯的重擔。 其次是怨言；以色列人不得進入應許之地的原因就是發怨言。民數記十四章二九至三十節明白地說：「凡….向我發怨言的，必不得進我起誓應許叫你們住的那地。」。任何微小的心懷不平或不滿足的念頭，常常造成悖逆的大罪。所以永遠不要讓自己有一點點的空間，來疑惑神在凡事上對我們的慈愛和信實。 還有疑惑；我們怎樣抵擋別的罪，也當照樣抵擋疑惑；當我們堅持拒絕疑惑的時候，聖靈會來幫助我們，賜給我們得勝的信心。 我們很容易陷入疑惑，懷抱不平，錯想自己被神棄絕，盼望都將破滅….等。請讓我們拒絕這一切的思想，因為它們的目的是為了讓我們失望，與不喜樂。而當我們感到不喜樂的時候，讓我們憑信心來喜樂；「以為….喜樂」（雅1:2）；這樣，神必叫我們的「以為」成為事實。--選 魔鬼有兩個最大的詭計；一個是叫我們失望，另一個是叫我們疑惑；二者都會阻隔我們與父神之間的信心連結。務要儆醒，不要被牠的詭計所欺騙！--G. E. M. 喜樂的靈能使我們的心弦合鳴，使撒但不敢前來撥亂；因為心弦火熱充滿屬天能力的時候，會燙傷那惡者的手，令牠遠離。 應該盡力遠離憂鬱，好像遠離撒但一樣；許多時候我們在路途遇見它，它便沾上我們，直到我們的心變色。因為憂鬱會將凡事變色；使眼前的一切變得不可愛；對未來的盼望淪入黑暗；剝奪人們一切的熱情，綑綁人們一切的能力，麻痺人們一切的精神。 某位經歷很深的信徒曾說：「喜樂能使工作順利；當我們戴上喜樂的翅膀時，我們的工作也會做得更迅速；憂鬱反會剪去喜樂的翅膀；就像拆去我們工作的車輪，使我們的車輪像埃及人的車輪一樣，脫落難行。」 --選 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and, let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Heb. 12:1). There are weights which are not sins in themselves, but which become distractions and stumbling blocks in our Christian progress. One of the worst of these is despondency. The heavy heart is indeed a weight that will surely drag us down in our holiness and usefulness. The failure of Israel to enter the land of promise began in murmuring, or, as the text in Numbers literally puts it, "as it were murmured." Just a faint desire to complain and be discontented. This led on until it blossomed and ripened into rebellion and ruin. Let us give ourselves no liberty ever to doubt God or His love and faithfulness to us in everything and forever. We can set our will against doubt just as we do against any other sin; and as we stand firm and refuse to doubt, the Holy Spirit will come to our aid and give us the faith of God and crown us with victory. It is very easy to fall into the habit of doubting, fretting, and wondering if God has forsaken us and if after all our hopes are to end in failure. Let us refuse to be discouraged. Let us refuse to be unhappy. Let us "count it all joy" when we cannot feel one emotion of happiness. Let us rejoice by faith, by resolution, by reckoning, and we shall surely find that God will make the reckoning real.--Selected The devil has two master tricks. One is to get us discouraged; then for a time at least we can be of no service to others, and so are defeated. The other is to make us doubt, thus breaking the faith link by which we are bound to our Father. Lookout! Do not be tricked either way.--G.E.M. Gladness! I like to cultivate the spirit of gladness! It puts the soul so in tune again, and keeps it in tune, so that Satan is shy of touching it--the chords of the soul become too warm, or too full of heavenly electricity, for his infernal fingers, and he goes off somewhere else! Satan is always very shy of meddling with me when my heart is full of gladness and joy in the Holy Ghost. My plan is to shun the spirit of sadness as I would Satan; but, alas! I am not always successful. Like the devil himself it meets me on the highway of usefulness, looks me so fully in my face, till my poor soul changes color! Sadness discolors everything; it leaves all objects charmless; it involves future prospects in darkness; it deprives the soul of all its aspirations, enchains all its powers, and produces a mental paralysis! An old believer remarked, that cheerfulness in religion makes all its services come off with delight; and that we are never carried forward so swiftly in the ways of duty as when borne on the wings of delight; adding, that Melancholy clips such wings; or, to alter the figure, takes off our chariot wheels in duty, and makes them, like those of the Egyptians, drag heavily. ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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