2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
12 Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” 15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
17 Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
“Do not think when we are suffering in the fiery furnace He does not care. Do not think that He sits lofty in the heavenlies paying us no mind. Our Master knows the intensity of the heat and the exact longevity of all our trials and tribulations designed to bring about His divine purposes of unmingled good and blessedness for every heir of mercy. Our Savior suffered with a magnitude we know nothing of so that heaven’s doors would be open to us. If on our way to our true home we undergo the arrows of Satan’s quiver, take heart my friend and do not lose your hope or joy. Many have traversed this same path and received the warmest of welcomes home. Weeping may endure for the night but joy, yes joy, comes in the morning.” BHY
“The sorest afflictions never appear intolerable, except when we see them in the wrong light.” Brother Lawrence
“The Lord gets His best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“The secret formula of the saints: When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord's choicest wines.” Samuel Rutherford
“Only in the hot furnace of affliction do we as Christians let go of the dross to which, in our foolishness, we ardently cling.” David Kingdon
“Afflictions work for good, as they are the means of loosening our hearts from the world. When you dig away the earth from the root of a tree, it is to loosen the tree from the earth; so God digs away our earthly comforts to loosen our hearts from the earth.” Thomas Watson
“Every affliction comes with a message from the heart of God.” Alexander Maclaren
“That one’s sorrows are actually working for the faithful believer is predicated upon the faith that the unseen is the ultimate and supreme reality and that the present and visible are only relative and ephemeral.....‘Our affliction,’ properly accepted, is actually creating or producing for us an ‘eternal weight of glory’ far beyond all proportion to the pain of the affliction. Therefore it should be cherished and not wasted by resistance and rebellion.” Paul E. Billheimer
“Patient endurance kills the despair that kills the soul; it teaches the soul to take comfort and not to grow listless in the face of its many battles and afflictions.” Saint Peter of Damaskos
“We don’t normally like being on the bottom. It’s just not the position we generally pick. It goes against our flesh. Yet, in the Bible’s economy you stoop to rise, you lower and God elevates. Therefore, rock bottom appears the perfect place to simply look up and the perfect time to begin building upon the solid foundation of the Rock of Christ. Often stripped of our dearest Delilah’s we are not too dissimilar to the returning prodigal. We have nothing but our will to bring – do we really ever have anything else? And Jesus says tenderly, ‘Come’. On Him you can depend. On Him you can count. On Him you can trust. He turns away no one. He will never let the righteous fall or blow away for that matter. His grip is firm and secure. Much akin to a young mother grabbing her two year old in busy traffic and yet so infinitely more. He dearly loves His children and He always causes them to stand because He is faithful and able to cause us to stand – no matter what wind blows.” BHY
“Indeed, we are treasures in fragile jars of clay. We do not lose heart, because in comparison to ‘the weight of glory’ that awaits us in the New Heaven and the New Earth, even our permanent afflictions are made temporary, and are heaviest burdens are lightened. For the things that we see and experience now—things like diving accidents and car crashes and wheelchairs—are temporary. And the things that we do not yet see or experience—things like renewed bodies and perfect souls and youthfulness that is renewed and will soar like the wings of an eagle—these things are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:7-18, 12:7-10; Isaiah 40:28-31).” Scott Sauls
“You exist because God wanted you to exist and you are who you are, what you are, how you are, where you are, and when you are because God made you (John 1:3), wove you in your mother’s womb (Psalms 139:13), called you to be his own (John 10:27); (Romans 8:30), and assigned you a life to live (1 Corinthians 7:17). And this infuses your entire life — its good and evil, its sweet and bitter, it’s health and affliction, its prosperity and poverty, its comfort and suffering — with an unfathomable dignity, purpose, and glory.” Jon Bloom