The Lesson of Obedience 順服的功課

My family met up with an awesome sister yesterday.  She tries very hard to bring her traditional church closer to Jesus.  I was very encouraged by her faithfulness and diligence.

我們全家昨天和一個很棒的姐妹碰面，她竭力要把她的教會（傳統教會）帶更靠近耶穌，她的忠心和擺上非常地激勵我。

We also shared our struggles about obeying Jesus.  She wants to obey Him all the way but is scared.  I don’t blame her and can totally understand.  Right after she served Him wholeheartedly, her child went through death threatening illness and her life was thrown into chaos, which caused her to have second thoughts to pursue God’s full purpose in her.

我們也分享我們彼此順服耶穌的掙扎，她很想完全順服耶穌，但是心裏懼怕。我完全能夠了解她的掙扎，她剛剛忠心服事擺上，她的小孩就經歷了死亡邊緣的病痛，她的生活也一片混亂，這讓她卻步，不敢追求 神在她生命中的完全旨意。

My experience is that it is crucial to gain the experiential knowledge of God.  Knowing Him in a personal way is to be free from many unnecessary hesitation and fear.  He is a gentle and loving Father, who is very patient with us.  Whenever I want to obey Him but struggle to do so, I can come before Him boldly and ask Him to give me grace to obey Him.  He always provides it and knows what I need the most.  Sometimes, what it takes is simply remembering what He has done for me in the past (draw from our intimacy bank account with Him).  My personal past experience of God helps me to trust Him now.  This personal understanding is not transferrable or explainable; it’s my very own relationship with Him. 

我自己的經驗是：經歷神的體驗是不可少的。個人在生活上的認識祂並經歷祂，能夠幫助我們從不必要的猶豫不決和懼怕中釋放出來，祂是一位溫柔、慈愛、有耐心的父親。每當我想順服祂，但是有困難時，我可以大膽來到祂的面前，請祂給我順服祂的恩典，祂總是不吝嗇地提供，而且知道我最需要的是什麼。有時候，我只要回想祂過去為我所做的一些事情（從我和祂親密關係的銀行戶頭上提款），就找到順服的力量。我個人過去對神的體驗，幫助我現在能相信祂。這個人對神的體驗，是不能轉讓的或詳解的，這是我個人和 神的關係。

To obey Him is to obey Him quickly and joyfully.  Timely obedience is the very key to His Kingdom economy.  Joyful obedience is the product of our faith and the seed of our strength.  The most difficult part about obedience is not knowing His will clearly, so I rather spend much time in prayer and finding out His will rather than jump into service.  Another challenge is that we are holding on to the value system of this world, which we are not even aware of it.  We don’t need to know everything to obey Him; we just need to know Him and how good and kind He is.  He is so much bigger than what we can imagine.  I have problems obeying Him but the more I know Him, the more easier to trust Him and voluntarily choose a more difficult path that pleases Him.

順服 神要順服的快，並喜樂地順服。順服的快，是打開神國資源的鑰匙。喜樂的順服，是我們信心的果實和力量的泉源。順服最難的，是不清楚祂的旨意，所以我寧可花很多時間禱告，明白祂的旨意，也不要冒然服事。順服的另一個挑戰，是我們緊抓住這個世界的價值體系，而自己都沒有察覺。我們不需要知道所有的事情才能順服祂，我們只需要認識祂，和祂的美善，祂比我們所能想像出來的更加偉大。我在順服祂時會有掙扎，但是越認識祂，就越容易相信祂，並主動選擇比較困難但是祂喜悅的道路。