When a person suffers from some corporeal affliction, he should be sorry that the Creator punished him, that he is afflicted. If he is not sorry, it is not a punishment, since a punishment is that which hurts a person and he cannot tolerate his situation, whether sorrow over provision or sorrow over illness.
If he says that he does not feel the sorrow, then he did not receive the punishment that the Creator has given him. We must know that the punishment is a correction for his soul. Thus, if he is not sorry, he has lost the correction.
One should pray to the Creator to take away from him the suffering and sorrow that he feels, since a prayer that stems from suffering is a greater correction than the correction of the punishment.
As I heard from Baal HaSulam, the Creator punishes a person not as a revenge, punishing him for not obeying Him, as do people. Rather, the punishment is a correction.
When one prays to the Creator to take away from him the punishment, it is as though he is asking the Creator to take away from him the correction. He asked, How can a person ask the Creator to take away from him the correction, if the correction is in man’s favor? And he explained that through the prayer when one asks the Creator to help him, he acquires connection with the Creator, and this is a greater correction than the correction that a person receives through the punishment.