上帝渴望我们渴慕祂。

My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Psalm 84:2

我的心肠、我的肉体向永生上帝呼吁。-诗篇84篇2节

One day my daughter was visiting with our one-year-old grandson. I was getting ready to leave the house on an errand, but as soon as I walked out of the room my grandson began to cry. It happened twice, and each time I went back and spent a moment with him. As I headed out the door the third time, his little lip began to quiver again. At that point my daughter said, “Dad, why don’t you just take him with you?”

有一天，女儿带着我们一岁的孙儿前来探望我们。我正准备要出门办点事，但只要我一走出房门，孙儿就开始嚎啕大哭。他哭了两次，每次我都走回来陪他一下。当我第三次准备出门时，他的小嘴又开始颤动。那时，我女儿说：“爸，你为什么不干脆带他一起去呢？”

Any grandparent could tell you what happened next. My grandson went along for the ride, just because I love him. 

任何一位祖父母都可以告诉你，接下来会发生什么事。我当然带着孙儿开车出门了，因为我爱他。

How good it is to know that the longings of our hearts for God are also met with love. The Bible assures us that we can “know and rely on the love God has for us” (1 John 4:16). God doesn’t love us because of anything we have or haven’t done. His love isn’t based on our worthiness at all, but on His goodness and faithfulness. When the world around us is unloving and unkind, we can rely on God’s unchanging love as our source of hope and peace.

同样地，我们心中对上帝的渴慕，祂也会以爱来回应，你想这是多么美好啊！圣经提醒我们，“上帝爱我们的心，我们也知道、也信”（约翰一书4章16节）。上帝不是因为我们做了什么，或没做什么才爱我们。祂的爱完全不是在于我们是否配得，乃是在于祂的良善和信实。即使我们周遭的世界是刻薄无情的，我们仍可倚靠上帝不变的爱，并以此为我们盼望和平安的源头。

Our heavenly Father’s heart has gone out to us through the gift of His Son and His Spirit. How comforting is the assurance that God loves us with love that never ends!

我们的天父藉由赐下祂的爱子和圣灵，彰显祂对我们的爱。上帝爱我们，且这爱永不止息，这是多么令人得安慰的确据啊！

慈爱的主，谢谢祢在十架上的牺牲，赐下怜悯。求祢帮助我们，今天就爱祢、顺服祢、并且爱其他人。

1 John 4:13-16  NIV

4 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

约翰一书 4:13-16 

4 神将他的灵赐给我们，从此就知道我们是住在他里面，他也住在我们里面。 14 父差子做世人的救主，这是我们所看见且作见证的。 15 凡认耶稣为神儿子的，神就住在他里面，他也住在神里面。 16 神爱我们的心，我们也知道也信。神就是爱，住在爱里面的，就是住在神里面，神也住在他里面。

INSIGHT

灵粮透视

Do you have a hard time relating to the love of God? Many of us think more with our heads than our hearts. John, a disciple of Jesus, is remembered as the apostle of love and referred to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23).

有时，你是否感觉不到上帝的爱呢？许多人常用头脑来思考，而不是用心来领会上帝的爱。让我们来看看耶稣的门徒约翰，他被人称为爱的使徒，并自称为“耶稣所爱的”门徒（约翰福音13章23节）。

John wrote more on love than any New Testament writer. But he wasn’t always so inclined. The gospel writer Luke remembers the day John and his brother James wanted to see Jesus call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan village that had turned Jesus away (Luke 9:51–56). Jesus let the two brothers know that their lack of empathy didn’t reflect His heart. Yet Jesus probably wasn’t surprised. Early on, and maybe with a smile, He had affectionately called them “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17).

约翰对于“爱”的讲论，多过任何一位新约作者，但约翰原本并不是很有爱心的人。根据路加福音的记载，当撒马利亚的一个村庄不接待耶稣时，约翰和他的兄弟雅各就希望耶稣叫火从天降下来烧灭这个村庄（路加福音9章51-56节）。耶稣让这两兄弟知道，他们对人缺乏怜悯，不能反映出祂的心意。不过，耶稣对此可能并不感到惊讶，因为在早些时候，耶稣曾称他们为“雷子”（马可福音3章17节）。

Yet John is the one who ends up being overwhelmed with the love of God and writes about the importance of loving others (1 John 3:16; 4:8, 16). What happened? Did he recognize the coldness of his own heart? Did he learn from Jesus that our ability to relate to the love of God may depend on our readiness to admit—and to be forgiven for—our lack of love? (John 3:16; Luke 7:37–50).

然而，约翰最终因上帝的爱而降服，并论述爱人的重要性（约翰一书3章16节，4章8、16节）。是什么促使他改变的呢？他是否看见自己内心的冷漠？他是否从耶稣身上学习到，明白我们能以上帝的爱去爱人，是取决于我们愿意承认自己缺乏爱心，并祈求饶恕呢？（约翰福音3章16节；路加福音7章37-50节）。

整理：于姊妹