足夠的恩典 Sufficient Grace

⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  (Phil 4: 6, 7)

應當一無掛慮，只要凡事藉著禱告、祈求，和感謝，將你們所要的告訴神。神所賜、出人意外的平安必在基督耶穌裏裡保守你們的心懷意念。（腓4:6,7）

Someone just booked a nice hotel for me to stay in Taiwan for my first 5 days there, very closed to where I will be ministering to next week.  I am really happy with it.  The church that I am going to serve in those days probably will not do anything for me, but someone else comes in and provides the things that I really want and need.  How miraculous!  It wasn’t like this at first, but this group just happens to host a retreat at a place really close to where I will be ministering to, so I asked for a possibility of using one of their rooms.  Staying with them was the original plan.  However, now their retreat center rooms are full so they had to place me somewhere else so they chose a really nice hotel room for me to stay instead.  I love this kind of surprises.   

我再過兩天就要回台灣復診和服事，今天早上有人寫 email 來，告訴我他們幫我在台灣訂了一個旅館的房間，距離我要服事的地方很近，我非常滿意。我要去服事的教會應該什麼都不會提供給我，但是現在卻有別人介入，負擔了我最需要的東西，多奇妙啊。一開始並不是如此，只是這個機構要舉辦一個住宿特會，他們特會的地點離我要服事的地方很近，所以我向他們申請了一個房間，沒想到他們報名住宿的人過多，所以他們就把我安排到另一個更舒適的旅館，這種結果真是超乎我的所求所想。

I know.  I am very needy right now.  That is my current situation.  Yes, I should be ready to suffer for Christ and the gospel.  I confess that I am not there yet, physically and spiritually.  I am still running to the restroom like 10, 20 times a day these days.  Two weeks ago I learned it the hard way when I went back to Los Angeles.  For most meals, I did not eat more than a small bowl or drink 2 ounces of water at a time.  When my IHOPKC friends arrived, I finished half order of a hotpot.  Oh man, afterwards, I ran to the restroom like crazy and a few accidents happened.  It was brutal.  Before presiding the wedding or sharing in a meeting, I did not dare to eat or drink anything.  By the end of the four days, I was starting to feel sick.  After I came back, I had severe back pain.  This back pain was interesting because it connected to loss of water and nutrients.  I felt instantly better once I drank a lot of water and soup, but of course I ran to the restroom over 20 times that day.  I found out about it through a google article.  Basically, I am still recovering from my chemo treatments so it would be nice to minimize my travelling stress. 

我知道，我現在很麻煩，這就是我目前的光景，是的，傳道人要為主、為福音受苦，但是我承認我體力上靈性上都還做不到。我現在還是一天跑廁所十幾、二十幾次，兩個星期之前我囘洛杉磯，吃了一些苦頭才學會。那時候一餐不敢吃超過一個小碗，和超過2盎司的水，禱告室的朋友到了洛杉磯的時候，吃了半個火鍋，結果就狂跑廁所，還出了一些小意外，真慘。我幫朋友證婚和講道之前，食物和水都不太敢碰，所以到後來就開始覺得快生病了。回來之後嚴重背痛，這背痛有趣的地方是我只要一直喝水喝湯就馬上好多了，我上網查了一下才知道，有些背痛和水分養分流失有關，不過當然喝水喝湯之後又是不斷跑廁所。基本上來説，我還是在復原的階段，所以旅途當中越少壓力越好，服事起來才不會要了我的小命，我今年上半年不打算再出門了。

Anyways, this hotel room is beyond what I prayed for.  This is one of those things that make me so grateful that He took notice of my needs!  In Philippians 4: 6, 7, it says that we should make our requests known to God and He will guard our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.  It does not say that God will provide all our requests or answer all our desires, but He will “guard hearts and minds” (focusing on Him and believing in Him) when our pray.  He never took away the trials that I have to go through, even after I prayed for it to be removed.  It’s the faith and obedience lessons that I have to walk out.  However, His little drops of grace and mercy make this road of obedience possible to bear.  I don’t think I can obey Him at all without His grace and mercy.  Prayers help me to focus on Him in the midst of trials.  Prayers open my eyes to see what He is providing for me.  His grace and mercy are always there, but very often prayers make them visible for me to detect them.  Then I can take courage to journey on, knowing that He likes me a lot even when things are tough.

這樣旅館的供應實在超過我的所求所想，這讓我很感恩，知道祂關心我的需要！腓利比書4章6，7節說，我們要將我們所要的告訴神，神必保守你們的心懷意念，這節從來沒有應許神會回應我們所有的禱告或供應我們心裏一切需求，但是這節應許我們若是我們禱告，神應許會保守我們的心懷意念（專注在祂的身上，一路相信祂）。雖然我到神挪走我的試練和考驗，但是祂沒有挪去，因為那是我信心順服的道路， 可是一路上祂滴下恩典憐憫的水滴，幫助我走下去，我想沒有祂的恩典憐憫，我根本不可能走得下去。禱告幫助我把注意力轉向祂，禱告打開我的眼睛使我們看見神的供應，祂的恩典和憐憫一直都在我身邊，很多時候藉著禱告我才能察覺他們，然後我受到激勵可以走下去，即使在困難的時候，我也可以知道祂真的很喜歡我。