编辑/翻译：Shane Lems /Maria Marta
在基督徒的生活中，試煉使我們痛哭、麻木、啞然、悲痛；試煉也使我們更加迫切地禱告。感謝上帝，祂在祂的主權中，以人難以置信、意想不到的方式，使用我們生活中的試驗、痛苦、与折磨。正如有人曾說，上帝不浪費痛苦。上帝使用痛苦是為了祂的榮耀和祂的子民的好處（羅五3-5）。痛苦------事實上，是艱難和可憎的。對此，巴刻有精辟透徹的論述：
上帝在恩典中如何達成這目的？不是藉蔭庇我們，使我們避免受到世界、肉體和魔鬼的攻擊；也不是藉遮掩我們，使我們得以規避環境所帶來的壓力和挫折；更不是藉保護我們，使我們免受自己的品性和心理所困擾；反之，它要我們面對這一切，使我們深深體會自己的軟弱無能，逼使我們懂得更緊緊地倚靠祂。從我們的角度來看，這正是神使我們的生活充滿各種困難和迷茫的根本原因------為的是確保我們懂得抓緊祂。聖經為何花大量篇幅一再重申上帝是堅固的磐石，穩固的山寨、可靠的避難所和弱者的幫助？原因是上帝願意花大量時間去引領我們明白，我們無論在心智和道德方面都太軟弱了，實在不能靠自己去尋獲正路或依循正路而行。
當我們悠然自得地走著一條康莊大道之際，如果有人拉著我們的手要扶持我們，我們大多會不耐煩地甩掉他的手。可是，當我們在黑暗的荒野中迷路，聽見暴風將至，在筋疲力竭之際，突然有人伸手扶持我們，我們便會感激不盡地緊靠著他。上帝也要我們經歷人生路途的艱難和迷惘，以致我們能學會帶著感恩之心緊靠著祂。因此，祂設法使我們不能再自持自信，進而懂得全心全意地倚靠祂--------按照聖經的教導，過敬虔生活的祕訣就是「等候耶和華」。 [摘錄自《認識神》Knowing God，p.288，（J. I. Packer）巴刻著/尹妙珍譯，福音證主協會，2003。]
Grace
in Affliction
In
the Christian life, trials make us cry hard and pray harder. They make us numb, dumbfounded, and
broken-hearted. Thankfully God in his
sovereignty uses the trials, pain, and affliction in our lives in ways that are
mind-boggling and unexpected. As someone
else said, God doesn’t waste pain. He
uses it for his glory and the good of his people (Rom. 5:3-5). Suffering – as hard and hellish as it is – is
productive for the Christian. J. I.
Packer stated this quite well:
“How
does God in grace prosecute this purpose?
Not by shielding us from assault by the world, the flesh, and the devil,
nor by protecting us from burdensome and frustrating circumstances, nor by
shielding us from trouble created by our own temperament and psychology; but
rather by exposing us to all these things, so as to overwhelm us with a sense
of our own inadequacy, and to drive us to cling to him more closely. This is the ultimate reason, from our
standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort
and another – it is to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast. The reason why the Bible spends so much of
its time reiterating that God is a strong rock, a firm defense, and a sure
refuge and help for the weak, is that God spends so much of his time bringing
home to us that we are weak, both mentally and morally, and dare not trust
ourselves to find, or to follow, the right road. When we walk along a clear road feeling fine,
and someone takes our arm to help us, as likely as not we shall impatiently
shake him off; but when we are caught in rough country in the dark, with a
storm getting up and our strength spent, and someone takes our arm to help us,
we shall thankfully lean on him. And God
wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we
may learn thankfully to lean on him.
Therefore he takes steps to drive us out of self-confidence to trust in
himself – in the classical scriptural phrase for the secret of the godly man’s
life, to ‘wait on the Lord.’”
J. I.
Packer, Knowing God, p. 227.
Shane
Lems
Hammond,
WI