2 And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay. 38 But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.”
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.
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 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, 30 since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
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.
“Calvary is God’s great proof that suffering in the will of God always leads to glory.” Warren Wiersbe
“Seriously, who wants to be known as ‘Shallow Hal’? Yet sadly, many who claim faith in Christ fall into the mile wide and an inch-deep category. This is not of God’s choosing. He desires for us to grow up in Christ – to be conformed to the image of his Son – and He often uses our tribulations to bring this about. That is His chosen instrument. Sometimes this is excruciatingly painful – more often than not. Remember as well, in this fallen and broken world, pain comes to all. There are no exceptions. But as believers our pain has purpose. Pain is also relative as you most likely know. A coffee stain on a white skirt can be as devastating to some as a bad diagnosis – go figure...If tribulation, then, is inevitable should we not prayerfully seek the purpose for it and grow up, look up, or grow nearer, if you will, in Christ? As believers, we are never more like our Savior as when we walk the path of suffering and sacrifice. And whether we are discerners of this or not the more like Christ we are the more satisfied we will be. Remember, too, God’s grace is always sufficient to meet every need. Every. Need.” BHY
“All my sufferings served to promote my spiritual and eternal good. Glory be to thee, O Lord.” Susannah Wesley
“The burden of suffering seems a tombstone hung about our necks, while in reality, it is only the weight which is necessary to keep down the diver while he is hunting for pearls.” Richter
“God shapes our character through suffering giving us a greater understanding of Who He is and who we are.” BHY
“Each adopted child of the Lord is going to receive the full inheritance. Everything that Jesus Christ received by divine right, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are going to receive by divine grace.....Whatever problem you are facing today that is making you groan, He is turning your groaning into glory. All the pain and all the hurt and all the suffering and all the agony, all the disappointment and all the dashed hopes and shattered dreams, all the insults and all the rejection, are all nothing when it comes to the Father’s glory that you will one day inherit. You can’t even begin to compare them. Test and rejoice in the Truth that the Spirit of God is giving you the ultimate victory, He is guaranteeing and sealing your adoption, and He is turning your groaning into glory.” Michael Youssef
“Suffering is the crucible the Divine Blacksmith uses to form us into the image of Christ. Apart from God’s grace suffering is deformative. For the believer, our suffering is accomplishing something. Suffering well takes practice. We must learn to pray our pain, sing our sorrows and lean into the comfort of community. God uses our suffering for the greater good of others. We suffer to share the One that suffered to save.” Jonathan Darville
“My hope is not in a cure today. My hope is not the absence of suffering and comfort returned. My hope is in the presence of the One who promises never to leave or forsake, the One who declares nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God.” (Romans 8:39). Nothing. Your story is a good story. In the grief, pain and hard, the Author has a plan. It may feel like a desperate breaking of your very heart, but suffering is not the absence of God or good.” Kara Tippetts
“Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger...these are nothing when compared with the glory that will be revealed in, and for us.” David Livingstone
“The strangest truth of the gospel is that redemption comes through suffering.” Milo Chapman
“What if suffering didn’t leave us questioning God — but left us seeing that God is always the answer?” Ann Voskamp
“Tribulation is necessary for the decentralization of self and the development of deep dimensions of agape love, this love can be developed only in the school of suffering. It grows and develops only by exercise and testing. This may explain the relationship between sainthood and suffering by showing why there is no sainthood without suffering. It may also show why the greatest saints are often the greatest suffers.” Paul E. Billheimer
“Suffering isn’t a mistake and isn’t the absence of God’s goodness — because He’s present in pain.” Kara Tippetts
“No one ever becomes a saint without suffering because suffering, properly accepted, is the pathway to glory.” Paul E. Billheimer
“When God doesn’t prevent suffering, He gives us perspective on suffering. Sometimes you just have to get a ‘God’s-eye’ view to see that the master potter is scooping up all the rubble and ruin from your low place to mold and create good in your life. His love reaches down into the dirt – what you may think is utter defeat or hopeless – and lifts you to see that He can turn what you may view as worthless into something worthwhile. God can take what we think is worthless and turn it into something worthwhile. Often, when we’re down, all we can see is the valley, the wasteland – we feel like our lives are a mess. But our loving God does not see us and our low places that way. The stuff you think may be just too messy, too ugly, too far gone is the stuff God is infusing with purpose. The sorrow that hurts you? God fashions it into faith that sustains you. The sin you’re ashamed of? God uses it to create beautiful humility. The failures you regret? God turns them into wisdom. The grief that shattered your heart? God crafts that into unshakable faith. The missed opportunities? God uses those to make you reflect His grace. The loss you never expected? God molds that into strength you can’t explain. God can make your low place a stepping stone to climb higher with Him. He can take even the worst things in your life – the injustice, defeat, abandonment or failure – to create the best for you, His beloved child.” Jennifer Rothschild
“Steel is iron plus fire. Soil is rock, plus heat, or glacier crushing. Linen is flax plus the bath that cleans, the comb that separates, and the flail that pounds, and the shuttle that weaves. Human character must have a plus attached to it. The world does not forget great character. But great characters are not made of luxuries, they are made by suffering....Someday, God is going to reveal the fact to every Christian, that the very principles they now rebel against, have been the instruments which He used in perfecting their characters and molding them into perfection, polished stones for His great building yonder.” Cortland Myers
“There was no way out but through. These sufferings result in new life being born from the old. Jesus speaks of grief and pain as temporary sorrows that will at some point give way to new life and joy. Birth pangs must happen so that new life can be birthed.” Aubry Smith
“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