◄ Partakers ►

If, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God" (1 Pet. 2:20).

Affliction and suffering are the lot of all men, the privilege of all believers. Our sufferings bring forth need, and our need brings forth His comfort and consolation. Blessed need! "As ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation" (2 Cor. 1:7). Blessed promise!"If you aspire to be a son of consolation; if you would partake of the priestly gift of sympathy; if you would pour something beyond commonplace consolation into a tempted heart; if you would pass through the intercourse of daily life with the delicate tact that never inflicts pain; you must be content to pay the price of a costly education - like Him, you must suffer."

"There are blessings which we cannot obtain if we cannot accept and endure suffering. There are joys that can come to us only through sorrow. There are revealings of divine truth which we can get only when earth's lights have gone out. There are harvests which can flow only after the plowshare has done its work."

"Comfort does not come to the light-hearted and merry. We must go down into depths' if we would experience this most precious of God's gifts - comfort, and thus be prepared to be coworkers together with Him."

"I take... pleasure in weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecution, and difficulties, which I endure for Christ's sake, for it is when I am consciously weak that I am really strong" (2 Cor. 12:10, Wms.).