阅读经文 

揭开第七印时，我们可能会预测这个故事很快便要结束了，然而我们却还未看见神展示祂惊天动地的能力，我们反而被一段天上的寂静时刻所笼罩着——这预备我们去接收一个重要的信息。

在我们快速的生活节奏中，鲜有能让我经历寂静的地方；不但如此，我们通常也不喜欢长时间的安静自处；我们总要做一些事情——听收音机、看电视、发短信、阅读或收听一本有声的书、玩游戏或运动、工作、从事兴趣爱好等等——目的是要避免长时间的寂静。

然而，寂静给予我们空间，让神对我们的心灵说话。在诗篇四十六篇中，神说：“你们要休息，要知道我是神。”第七印揭开后，启示录的叙事情节开始走向黑暗和创伤，这些毁坏被神容许用于试验和挑战世人的权势。然而，对于靠赖对耶稣的信心而生活的人，我们需要属天的寂静——即神在其中可以向我们启示祂是谁的那种安息——来面对任何挑战我们信心的处境。

你今天或许正面对某些挑战。今天的经文中持久的寂静提醒我们，这是神在应许我们不是孤单一人；神与我们同在，祂是“我们的避难所，是我们的力量，是我们在患难中随时的帮助。”（参诗 46:1）

With the opening of the seventh seal we might have expected the story to come to a speedy conclusion. But we do not meet a cosmic display of God’s almighty forces. Instead, we are surrounded by heaven’s silence for an extended time—so that we can receive an important message.

In our fast-paced lives there are very few places where we experience silence. Not only that, but we generally don’t like to have times of prolonged silence. We’ll do anything—listen to a radio, watch TV, send text messages, read or listen to a book, play games or sports, work, do hobbies, and more—to avoid staying in silence for very long.

Silence gives us space, however, for God to speak to our hearts. It is God who speaks in Psalm 46, saying, "Be still, and know that I am God." With the opening of the seventh seal, the story line in Revelation moves toward darkness and devastation, destruction from powers that are allowed to test and challenge people on the earth. As those who live by faith in Jesus, however, we need heaven’s silence—the stillness in which God can make himself known to us—to face any challenges to our faith.

You may be facing challenges today. The prolonged silence in today’s Bible reading promises to be God’s way of assuring us that we are not alone. God is with us as "our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."