避免良心剛硬Avoiding a Hardened Conscience
[每日靈修] 1/13/2019, 駱鴻銘編譯
上帝警告我們不要讓自己的心變剛硬，因為要是我們從聖經角度來看待整個剛硬的概念，我們就會看到通過重複不斷犯罪因而發生在我們身上的事。我們的良心會枯萎。對某樣特定的罪我們犯得越多，我們對它的悔恨就越少。我們的心會因反覆不斷的悖逆而變得頑固不化。
當上帝使人心剛硬時，祂所做的就只是抽身離開並停止與我們一起奮鬥。例如，我第一次犯了一個特定的罪，我的良心會困擾我。在他的恩典中，上帝使我認識那邪惡。上帝正在闖入我的生命，試圖說服我停止這種邪惡。如果祂想要使我的心剛硬，祂所要做的就只是停止譴責我，不再輕輕推我以提醒我，只要給我足夠的繩索去吊死自己。
我們在聖經中看到，當上帝是人心剛硬時，祂並沒有強迫人犯罪；相反，祂賦予他們自由，盡情發揮自己私慾的邪惡（雅一13～15）。
活在神的面光中（在神面前禱告）：
和詩篇作者大衛一起禱告：「神啊，求你鑒察我，知道我的心思，試煉我，知道我的意念， 看在我裏面有什麼惡行沒有，引導我走永生的道路。」（詩一三九23～24）。
進一步研讀：
雅一13～15 人被試探，不可說：「我是被神試探」；因為神不能被惡試探，他也不試探人。但各人被試探，乃是被自己的私慾牽引誘惑的。 私慾既懷了胎，就生出罪來；罪既長成，就生出死來。
Avoiding
a Hardened Conscience
We are
warned not to allow ourselves to become hardened, because if we look at the
whole concept of hardening in its biblical perspective, we see that something
happens to us through repeated sins. Our consciences become seared. The more we
commit a particular sin, the less remorse we feel from it. Our hearts are
recalcitrant through repeated disobedience.
When
God hardens the heart, all He does is step away and stop striving with us. For
example, the first time I commit a particular sin, my conscience bothers me. In
His grace, God is convicting me of that evil. God is intruding into my life,
trying to persuade me to stop this wickedness. If He wants to harden me, all He
has to do is to stop rebuking me, stop nudging me, and just give me enough rope
to hang myself.
We
see in Scripture that when God hardens hearts, He does not force people to sin;
rather, He gives them their freedom to exercise the evil of their own desires
(James 1:13–15).
Coram
Deo
Pray
this prayer with the psalmist David: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try
me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead
me in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139:23–24).
Passages
for Further Study
James
1:13-15