Spiritual Thought for the Week 2009/6/7

本周默想分享
亞伯拉罕經歷了信實的神。神要他把兒子獻上，他就獻上。神預備公羊為燔祭代替他的兒子。亞伯拉罕給那地方起名叫耶和華以勒。意思就是耶和華必有預備。今天我們經歷不到耶和華以勒的福氣，究竟是甚麼原因呢？原來亞伯拉罕經歷神的信實，是因為他有信心。“耶和華說，你既行了這事，不留下你的兒子，就是你獨生的兒子，我便指著自己起誓說，論福，我必賜大福給你”（創22：16-17）
在宇宙中，實在說來，只有神和我們有真實的關係，永遠的關係。因為只有神是永存的，不變的，我們的一切都是從祂而來的，也都歸於祂。此外一切萬有，包括我們所在的世界和人物，都是因為神而發生某種暫時的關係，然而人常迷糊了，以為和別的甚麼關係是真實的，重要的，不可少的。卻不知神若收取，加以解除，就甚麼也不剩下，一切都不存在了。
我們所有的，無不是神所賜的，我們應當感謝祂，祂若取去，也當讚美祂。但祂願意向我們要，叫我們有機會自動地獻給祂，表示我們對神的尊敬，順服與愛心，來討祂的喜悅。神叫亞伯拉罕獻以撒就是這樣，好像祂所要求的太大了，太利害了，其實也不過要求將祂所賜的東西還給祂，叫我們從受造之物，歸向造物之主，從虛空的轉到真實的。
結果呢？是神自己預備了代替之物，並因著我們向著祂的敬畏和愛心，將加上千萬倍的賞賜還給我們。今生看不見，將來會得著。獻上給神不會是損失，只會是更豐富的得著，且得著神自己。神曾把祂的獨生子賜給我們，沒有留下甚麼不肯給我們的，我們還有甚麼捨不得的呢？神並不是真的要叫我們失去所最需要的，不過試驗我們對祂的信心和順服罷了！我們若真愛祂勝過愛一切，難道祂不會將最寶貴，最豐富的賜給我們嗎？
Spiritual Thought for the Week
Abraham experienced his faithful God. God asked him to give his son Isaac as an offering. He did as he was asked. Then God prepared a ram for him for the offering. Abraham killed the ram instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh meaning the Lord has provided. Today we find it hard to experience the blessedness of Jehovah Jireh and we ask why. In fact it took Abraham great faith to experience that faithfulness of God. “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you…”(Genesis 22:16-17)
In the whole universe, only our relationship with God is real and eternal. Only He exists from everlasting to everlasting. He never changes. We come from Him and one day we return to Him. So everything we do and have our being comes from God. All our temporal relationships are derived from God who is the ground of being. Foolishly men took the temporal as the eternal. We thought all relationships are real, important and indispensable, without knowing that if God wants to take back, and disband what He gave, everything will come to non existence.
Everything we have comes from God. We need to thank Him. Even if He takes everything away we still need to thank Him. However His holy will is that He wants to ask us to give voluntarily to Him. So that we have a chance to show our gratitude, respect, obedience and appreciations to Him. We can make Him happy. That’s the reason why God wanted Abraham to give Isaac to Him. One might say God is asking too much from Abraham. In fact God was only asking for things He gave us in the first place. This is a test to see if we the creature are willing to return to the creator things we were given by Him. If we pass the test we are moving from temporal to eternal.
Consequently, God provided for the substitution. And because of our willingness to love and respect He gives us a hundred million times more than what we originally offered. Although we may not see it here and now, yet we will see it in the future. Giving to God will never be a loss. It will pay off in abundance. The reward is God Himself. God gave His only son to us. There is nothing more important than this that He would not give. Do we have something which is more important than this that we can not give? God does not really want us to lose what we most need. But He wants to see our faith and our obedience. If we love Him more than anything on earth, He will give us the most precious thing He has in heaven for us.