9我们祷告、祈求的时候,都该伴随着对主的感谢。最近我又学了一次感谢主的功课。我求主恢复我健康的时候,祂责备我,没有为着目前仍然拥有的健康感谢祂。每当我们生病的时候,必须对主说,“主,我感谢你,我多少还有点健康。主,我病了,可是我还没有病到一个地步,不能把基督服事给众圣徒。但是,主啊,你知道,我不是完全的健康。因此,我求你使我康复,完全健康起来。”我们都必须学习这样向主祈求(腓立比书生命读经,六五一至六五二页)。
9Both our prayer and petition should be accompanied by thanksgiving to the Lord. Recently, I once again learned the lesson of being thankful to the Lord. When I asked the Lord to restore my health, I was rebuked by Him for not thanking Him for the measure of health I still had. Whenever we are ill, we need to say, “Lord, I thank You that I am still healthy to a certain degree. Lord, I am ill, but I am not so ill that I cannot minister Christ to the saints. But, Lord, You know that I am not altogether healthy. Therefore, I ask You to improve my health and make me fully healthy again.” We all need to learn to petition the Lord in this way. (Life-study of Philippians, pp. 529-530)