“我们…遭遇苦难，被压太重……甚至连活命的指望都绝了。自己心里也断定是必死的，叫我们不靠自己，只靠叫死人复活的神。。”（哥林多后书1章8-9节）
遭遇苦难，常使我们重视生命。每一次死里逃生之后，我们觉得这真是一个心的开始，该怎样多事神事人。遭遇苦难，也使我们能谅解、同情别人的苦难。
人们总常喜欢批评别人没有信心，逃避试炼；但是曾经苦难的人绝不如此，他知道、懂得别人所遭遇的苦是什么。保罗说： “死在我们心中发动，生却在你们心中发动。”（林后4：12）
苦难是催逼我们前进的必需品，正如船中的炉火是使船驶行的必需品一般。——信宣（A.B.Simpson）
I was crushed...so much so that I despaired even of life, but that was to make me rely not on myself, but on the God who raises the dead" (2 Cor. 1:8, 9).
"Pressed out of measure and pressed to all length;
Pressed so intensely it seems, beyond strength;
Pressed in the body and pressed in the soul,
Pressed in the mind till the dark surges roll.
Pressure by foes, and a pressure from friends.
Pressure on pressure, till life nearly ends.
"Pressed into knowing no helper but God;
Pressed into loving the staff and the rod.
Pressed into liberty where nothing clings;
Pressed into faith for impossible things.
Pressed into living a life in the Lord,
Pressed into living a Christ-life outpoured."
The pressure of hard places makes us value life. Every time our life is given back to us from such a trial, it is like a new beginning, and we learn better how much it is worth, and make more of it for God and man. The pressure helps us to understand the trials of others, and fits us to help and sympathize with them.
There is a shallow, superficial nature, that gets hold of a theory or a promise lightly, and talks very glibly about the distrust of those who shrink from every trial; but the man or woman who has suffered much never does this, but is very tender and gentle, and knows what suffering really means. This is what Paul meant when he said, "Death worketh in you."
Trials and hard places are needed to press us forward, even as the furnace fires in the hold of that mighty ship give force that moves the piston, drives the engine, and propels that great vessel across the sea in the face of the winds and waves.
遭遇苦难，常使我们重视生命。每一次死里逃生之后，我们觉得这真是一个心的开始，该怎样多事神事人。遭遇苦难，也使我们能谅解、同情别人的苦难。
人们总常喜欢批评别人没有信心，逃避试炼；但是曾经苦难的人绝不如此，他知道、懂得别人所遭遇的苦是什么。保罗说： “死在我们心中发动，生却在你们心中发动。”（林后4：12）
苦难是催逼我们前进的必需品，正如船中的炉火是使船驶行的必需品一般。——信宣（A.B.Simpson）
I was crushed...so much so that I despaired even of life, but that was to make me rely not on myself, but on the God who raises the dead" (2 Cor. 1:8, 9).
"Pressed out of measure and pressed to all length;
Pressed so intensely it seems, beyond strength;
Pressed in the body and pressed in the soul,
Pressed in the mind till the dark surges roll.
Pressure by foes, and a pressure from friends.
Pressure on pressure, till life nearly ends.
"Pressed into knowing no helper but God;
Pressed into loving the staff and the rod.
Pressed into liberty where nothing clings;
Pressed into faith for impossible things.
Pressed into living a life in the Lord,
Pressed into living a Christ-life outpoured."
The pressure of hard places makes us value life. Every time our life is given back to us from such a trial, it is like a new beginning, and we learn better how much it is worth, and make more of it for God and man. The pressure helps us to understand the trials of others, and fits us to help and sympathize with them.
There is a shallow, superficial nature, that gets hold of a theory or a promise lightly, and talks very glibly about the distrust of those who shrink from every trial; but the man or woman who has suffered much never does this, but is very tender and gentle, and knows what suffering really means. This is what Paul meant when he said, "Death worketh in you."
Trials and hard places are needed to press us forward, even as the furnace fires in the hold of that mighty ship give force that moves the piston, drives the engine, and propels that great vessel across the sea in the face of the winds and waves.