Philippians 4:12
I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
To be abased and to abound means to have learned how to remain faithful and content in need and in plenty, in every place and in every circumstance. That learned contentment embraces health and sickness as fully as it embraces want and abundance. In either condition the path is to follow providence with gratitude and to live for divine glory, surrendering self and trusting the leading that orders each lot.
Trials and hardship are not wasted, for they can draw the sufferer nearer to Christ, who sustains and comforts even when God seems absent. Victory comes only as self is crucified, so that overcoming in Jesus brings present peace and triumph and at last the reward of the faithful. In practical life this means being content to live faithfully on a small income and to manage it wisely, rather than risking continual loss by chasing supposedly better circumstances.
The same contrast between little and much holds through changing circumstances in divine service, through enduring hunger and hardship, then receiving means for carrying forward the work, then falling into want again during a husband's illness, while continuing steadfast in the work through them all.