“Faith in God Can Be Strengthened Even More in Trial 在試煉裡對神的信心更能得著堅固“（1 Kings 列王記上 17:17-24）
Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill … and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, ‘What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?’ ‘Give me your son,’ Elijah replied. … Then he cried out to the Lord, ‘Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die? … let this boy’s life return to him!’ The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. … He gave him to his mother and said, ‘Look, your son is alive!’ Then the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.’
這些事以後，那婦人，就是那個家庭的主人的兒子病了 … 以致呼吸都停止了。於是婦人對以利亞說：“神人哪，我跟你有甚麼關係呢？你竟到我這裡來，使耶和華想起我的罪孽，殺死我的兒子。”以利亞對她說：“把你的兒子交給我吧！”… 以利亞呼求耶和華說：“耶和華我的神啊，我寄居在這寡婦的家裡，你也降禍與她，使她的兒子死去嗎？… 求你恢復這孩子的生命吧。”耶和華垂聽了以利亞的話，孩子的生命果然恢復，活過來了。以利亞 … 把孩子交給他的母親；以利亞說：“看，你的兒子活了！”婦人對以利亞說：“現在我知道你是神人，耶和華藉著你的口所說的話是真實的。”
The death of the widow’s son was a double blow to her because of the loss of both her only son and the only hope for providing her in her old age. Clutching the dead child tightly in her arms, she indirectly blamed Elijah and yet more directly blamed herself and her unnamed sin with its guilty memory being always close to her. Since Elijah knew God led him to this widow, with great heart and intimacy with Him, he laid this seemingly unexplainable and irredeemable tragedy on Him in prayer asking Him to remedy it. The son was raised and God provided for the widow on every level, not only with the miraculous supply of food, but also with the resuscitation of her son.
寡婦兒子的病死，因著失去她的獨子和在老年得供養的希望，對她成了雙重的打擊。正在把死去的孩子牢牢地抓緊在雙臂時，她間接地怪責了以利亞，然而常常帶著緊隨自己罪疚的回憶，她更直接地歸疚於自己和自己未承認的罪。因為以利亞曉得神引領他找到這個寡婦，他帶著勇敢的心與神關係的親密，以禱告把這無法解釋又不可挽救的悲劇交托給神，祈求祂補救它。那兒子得復生，而神不單只是以食物神奇的供應，而且也以她兒子的復甦，在每一層面上供給那寡婦。
Prayer: Gracious and loving God, we confess that when our happy days of experiencing prayer wonderfully answered were eventually covered by a dark shadow of something like having our treasured thing or person, etc. lost, we might have our faith in you seriously shaken like that of the Gentile widow who lost her only son. Have pity on us for our little faith and empower us with your grace, love and peace to face our pain and suffering so that not only we could go through the trial but also our faith in you could be strengthened even more. Amen.
禱告：有恩惠、仁愛的神啊！我們要承認，當我們體驗禱告奇妙地得蒙應允的快樂日子，至終地蒙上某些黑暗的陰影，例如失去自己所珍惜的東西或人時，我們對你的信心或許已嚴重地被動摇了，就好像那失去自己獨子的外邦人寡婦一樣。求你因著我們的小信可憐我們，並以你的恩典、仁愛和平安，使我們有力量去面對自己的痛苦和患難，好使我們不單只能夠渡過試煉，而且我們對你的信心更能得著堅固。阿們。
