【双语灵修】谦卑 Humility

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“敬畏耶华心存谦卑，就得富有、尊荣、生命为赏赐。” - 箴 22:4

箴言 22:4所应许的赏赐在1-3节中被具体化了。仅仅躲避骄傲是不够的。我们若要远离它，就要变得谦卑。

第2节说，神既造了富户也造了穷人。在这里，“富户”并不是指拥有奢侈生活的人。拥有财富，或变得富足，意味着当我们在做神的工作——也就是按着神的旨意生活时——我们就能获得我们真正所需的一切，继续前行。

财富并不是最重要的赏赐。第1节说，美名胜过大财。我们若谦卑地跟随神，就能获得他人的尊重，即使是那些不怎么友善的人也会对我们有所尊重。

谦卑跟随神所获得的最可靠的赏赐就是生命本身。当我们足够谦卑地依靠神的指引时，我们会为自己避免了多少个陷阱而感到惊讶。我们会避免一些因为受到骄傲欺骗，误以为我们自己可以搞定所带来的问题。

当我们谦卑下来，我们就会惊讶地发现，神多少次帮助我们避开了那些我们甚至没有留意到的麻烦。当我们谦卑下来，再看到或听到某人因为愚蠢导致了毁灭，我们就学会说：“若不是神的恩典，我也要如此灭亡。”这是因为，正如第3节所指出的，愚蒙人会一头栽进困境里；他们没有被神指引。

祷告

亲爱的耶稣，生活有可能无比艰难。我很容易陷入困境，会伤害我的身体或丧失财富，甚至毁掉我的名声。只有你能引导我安然渡过。阿们。

箴言 22:1-4

1美名胜过大财，恩宠强如金银。
2富户穷人在世相遇，都为耶和华所造。
3通达人见祸藏躲，愚蒙人前往受害。
4敬畏耶和华心存谦卑，就得富有、尊荣、生命为赏赐。

Humility

"Humility is the fear of the LORD; its wages are riches and honor and life." - Proverbs 22:4

The rewards promised in Proverbs 22:4 are fleshed out in verses 1-3. Avoiding pride is not enough. We need to lean away from it and become humble.

God makes both the rich and the poor, says verse 2. In this context, “rich” does not refer to having an extravagant life. Having riches, or wealth, means that when we are doing God’s work—that is, living God’s way—we can count on receiving everything we truly need to keep going.

And wealth isn’t the most important reward. Honor, a good name, is more desirable than great riches, says verse 1. By humbly following God, we gain the respect of other good people, and we probably gain some respect from some not-so-great people also.

The most reliable reward of humbly following God is life itself. When we are humble enough to rely on God’s direction, it is amazing how many pitfalls we avoid. We avoid the problems that pride falsely says we can handle ourselves.

When we are humble, we are amazed how often God helps us steer clear of trouble that we didn’t even see coming. When we are humble and we see or hear of someone’s folly leading to ruin, we learn to say, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” That’s because, as verse 3 notes, the unwise keep going right into trouble; they don’t have God to guide them.

Prayer

Dear Jesus, life can be so tricky. I could easily fall into troubles that would hurt me physically or financially or even ruin my good name. You alone can guide me safely through. Amen.