问题39：我们应该以什么态度祷告？
答：带着爱、恒心和感恩；谦卑顺服神的旨意，知道因着基督的缘故，祂总是垂听我们的祷告。
儿童版：带着爱、恒心和感恩。

Question 39: With What Attitude Should We Pray?
Answer: With love, perseverance, and gratefulness; in humble submission to God’s will, knowing that, for the sake of Christ, he always hears our prayers.
For Kids: With love, perseverance, and gratefulness.


歌谱 Lead Sheet

经文

《腓立比书》4 章6 节：

　　应当一无挂虑，只要凡事藉着祷告、祈求和感谢，将你们所要的告诉神。

注解

约翰·班扬

　　在开始祷告之前，先问你的灵魂这些问题：我的灵魂啊，你隐藏在这个地方做什么？你不是要在祷告中与主说话吗？祂在吗？祂会听你吗？祂有怜悯吗？祂会帮你吗？你的事微不足道吗？它无关乎你灵魂的福祉吗？你要怎么说，祂才怜悯你呢？最后一项准备工作是，要思想你不过是尘土，而祂是伟大的神，是我们主耶稣基督的父神，祂以光明为衣裳；你是一个肮脏的罪人，而祂是圣洁的神；你不过是只可怜的爬虫，而祂是全能的造物主。在你所有的祷告中，不要忘记感谢主的怜悯。当你祷告时，宁可有心无口，也不要有口无心。祷告会让人不再犯罪，罪也会引诱人停止祷告。

默想

安泰博

　　假冒为善的祷告，这是一个自相矛盾的词。假冒为善与祷告，这两者无法并存。我们所说一切关于祷告的事，都与假冒为善是根本沾不上边的。主在福音书中这样教导我们，祂论到法利赛人、文士在群众面前的祷告，对他们来说，祷告只是一种表演。如果你已经开始了一段时间的祷告，你就知道你其实不需观众也能作秀。我们自己就是祷告的观众，自我欣赏祷告中的措辞。于是，我们的祷告就不再是与神的交通，而成为了骄傲的展示。

　　但真实的祷告是爱的表达、毅力的体现，表达我们的感激之情。

　　祷告为何是爱的表达？因为我们在祷告中，与圣父、圣子、圣灵交通。我们在圣灵的引导下，借着圣子的名向天父祷告。我们在祷告中享受他们的同在、认识他们，并与他们交通。所以，祷告若没有爱，怎能称为与神交通呢？

　　祷告也应该是坚持不懈、坚定不移的，是反复不断的，好像持续叩门一样。坚持不懈的祷告是必须的，因为我们必须战胜肉体，我们的肉体是与圣灵相争的。让我告诉你，当我们祷告时，有时我们心思不定，无法专心；当我们祷告时，有时经历到的是脆弱、软弱与疲惫。有时我祷告到一半时睡着了，所以我们需要坚忍不懈。我们还要将属神的事物带入到我们的生命中，而将属世之物赶出去，将肉体再次钉在十字架上，这样我们就会更深地经历与主的交通。

　　祷告还应该是感恩和感谢的表达。让我们数算神的祝福，标记神的护理，为祂介入我们的生命而欢庆。以至我们不但接受了基督，也接受了所有在基督里的每件事物，并以各种方式经历到它们，尽管有时不是我们所预期的。但所有神的介入都是祝福，是将神的慈爱给我们，于我们都是有益的，而我们祷告应当表达我们的感激之情，这样我们才能更好地通过祷告认识神的良善和慈爱。

　　如司布真所说，即使我们不能追寻神做工的痕迹，但我们仍可以信靠神的心意，因为我们知道神是良善的，我们也感谢祂的良善。神的爱在我们的祷告与坚忍中愈发激励我们，并且使我们再一次爱基督我们的救主、神我们的天父与圣灵我们的保惠师。

祷告

　　慈爱的父，我们奉祢爱子的名来到祢面前。求祢给我们祷告的恒心，即使在我们没有立即看到答案的时候。让我们相信，祢会把最好的东西给我们，会拦阻我们寻求那些会伤害我们的东西。祢的道路高过我们的道路，我们将所求的交托于祢良善的恩手之中。阿们。

Scripture

PHILIPPIANS 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Commentary

JOHN BUNYAN

Before you enter into prayer, ask thy soul these questions: To what end, O my soul, art thou retired into this place? Art thou not come to discourse the Lord in prayer? Is he present; will he hear thee? Is he merciful; will he help thee? Is thy business slight; is it not concerning the welfare of thy soul? What words wilt thou use to move him to compassion? To make thy preparation complete, consider that thou art but dust and ashes, and he the great God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that clothes himself with light as with a garment; that thou art a vile sinner, he a holy God; that thou art but a poor crawling worm, he the omnipotent Creator. In all your prayers forget not to thank the Lord for his mercies. When thou prayest, rather let thy heart be without words, than thy words without a heart. Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.

Devotional

THABITI ANYABWILE

Hypocritical prayer is an oxymoron; hypocrisy and prayer just don’t go together. Anything that we properly call prayer should be divorced from hypocrisy. The Lord teaches us this in the Gospels when he talks about those who pray for an audience; for them prayer is a show. And if you’ve been praying any length of time, you know that you don’t need an audience for your prayers to be a show. Sometimes we’re watching ourselves pray. We’re admiring the eloquence of our appeal. We like the turn of phrase. So our prayer can go from being an act of communion with God to a demonstration of pride.

But real prayer is an expression of love. Real prayer is an expression of perseverance. It’s an expression of gratefulness.

Why love? Because in prayer we’re communing with God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We’re praying to the Father in the name of the Son through the Spirit. And in the act of prayer, we’re meant to enjoy them and to get to know them and to commune with them. How can prayer be communion without love?

In prayer there should also be perseverance, steadfastness, press- ing in, continuously knocking at the door. This perseverance is necessary to prevail against our flesh. Our flesh wars against the spirit. And, boy, I tell you, when we pray, don’t we sometimes experience a wandering, distracting mind? When we pray, don’t we sometimes experience our frailty, our weakness, our fatigue? I’ve fallen asleep praying just as our Lord’s apostles did in the garden of Gethsemane. So we need perseverance, and we need that pressing into the things of God, that pushing out the distractions of the world, that crucifying of the flesh, again, that we might have this fuller communion with the Lord.

Finally, prayer ought to be an expression of gratitude. Let us count the blessings of the Lord. Let us mark his providences. Let us observe the divine interruptions that have broken into our lives, such that we might receive not only Christ but everything in Christ, and receive and experience it in surprising ways, in opportune times, in times later than we had hoped for or expected. The divine interruptions of God, which are blessings and distributions of his kindness to us, ought to cultivate gratitude in us. Our prayers ought to express that gratitude so that we’re conscious of the kindness and goodness of the Lord.

Even when we can’t trace God’s hand, as the saying goes, we can trust his heart because we know God is good, and we’re grateful for his goodness. That spurs us on in our prayer and perseverance, and it turns us again in love toward Christ our Savior, God our Father, and the Spirit our Comforter.

Prayer

Loving Father, we come to you in the name of your beloved Son. Give us perseverance in prayer, even when we do not immediately see answers. Let us believe that you will not keep back any good thing from us, and trust that you will withhold those things we seek that would harm us. Your ways are higher than our ways, and we entrust our requests to your sovereign kindness. Amen.