「我一切都收到了，並且有餘，我已經充足。」－腓立比書4:18
然而，在這種幽閉關鎖的處境裡，花兒卻正能展現迷人亮麗的神采。
保羅一生的路途中，也許已無數次見過了這種路邊的小花，但他從未像這次一樣，看見花朵如此富有朝氣。他在監牢中，見到了他從未見過之神應許中的寶藏。
這些寶藏包含了基督的恩典、基督的愛、基督的喜樂和平安。這些珍寶似乎非要經過黑暗的包圍籠罩，才能誘出他們裡頭隱含的奧秘和榮耀。
是的，幽暗的蔭蔽成了啟示的聖所，保羅自此明白了，他所得的屬靈產業是多麼遠超想像的浩大豐富。
我們都認識一些弟兄姊妹，當他們被帶進烏雲繚繞的孤寂環境中，還得以穿上能力和盼望的衣袍。
即使你能隨意的囚禁這些人，你卻不能令他們與他們內裡的寶藏分開；即使你能讓他們過著沙漠般的生活，然而「曠野和乾旱之地必然歡喜；沙漠也必歡騰，又像玫瑰開花」（以賽亞書35:1）。
－喬懷德博士
"I have all, and abound" (Phil. 4:18).In one of my garden books there is a chapter with a very interesting heading, "Flowers that Grow in the Gloom." It deals with those patches in a garden which never catch the sunlight. And my guide tells me the sort of flowers which are not afraid of these dingy corners--may rather like them and flourish in them.
And there are similar things in the world of the spirit. They come out when material circumstances become stern and severe. They grow in the gloom. How can we otherwise explain some of the experiences of the Apostle Paul?
Here he is in captivity at Rome. The supreme mission of his life appears to be broken. But it is just in this besetting dinginess that flowers begin to show their faces in bright and fascinating glory. He may have seen them before, growing in the open road, but never as they now appeared in incomparable strength and beauty. Words of promise opened out their treasures as he had never seen them before.
Among those treasures were such wonderful things as the grace of Christ, the love of Christ, the joy and peace of Christ; and it seemed as though they needed an "encircling gloom" to draw out their secret and their inner glory. At any rate the realm of gloom became the home of revelation, and Paul began to realize as never before the range and wealth of his spiritual inheritance. Who has not known men and women who, when they arrive at seasons of gloom and solitude, put on strength and hopefulness like a robe? You may imprison such folk where you please; but you shut up their treasure with them. You cannot shut it out. You may make their material lot a desert, but "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose."--Dr. Jowett
