Remember in the midst of your most grievous afflictions that the worst state of a believer is better than the best state of an unbeliever.

It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.

Jesus learned obedience by the things He suffered. Peter learned obedience by the things he suffered. Paul learned obedience by the things he suffered. What about you? Have you learned? Or are you hard, calloused, cold, bitter, and resentful? Then you did not learn obedience.

In other words, a believer who chooses to delight in the Word of God in the midst of adversity will avoid being offended. That person will be like a tree whose roots search deep to where the Spirit provides strength and nourishment. He will draw from the well of God deep within his spirit. This will mature him to the point where adversity will now be the catalyst for fruit. Hallelujah!

Sin easily hides where there is no heat of trials and afflictions. In times of prosperity and success, even a wicked man will seem kind and generous. Under the heat of trials, however, the impurities surface.

If you search for an escape route before understanding why God has you in a particularly dry situation, you unwittingly will prolong your wilderness time.

Trials and testings locate a person. In other words, they determine your spiritual position. They reveal the true condition of your heart.

There's no escaping the adversity waiting for each of us if we follow the path of Jesus. The stakes are high and the eternal rewards priceless. You have a vicious enemy who, to put it bluntly, wants to destroy your influence and wreck your God-assigned mission. As far as Satan's concerned, you are a threat and need to be stopped—indeed, he will be happy when you are "dead."

Whoso beset him round With dismal stories Do but themselves confound; His strength the more is.

Affliction is better than sin, and if God sends the one to cleanse us from the other, let us thank him, and be also content to pay the messenger.

If you continue in this direction you are likely to experience wearisomeness, painfulness, hunger, perils, nakedness, sword, lions, dragons, darkness, and, in a word, death, and who knows what else.

When he was taken this last time, he was preaching on these words, viz.:Dost thou believe the Son of God?  And this imprisonment continued six years, and when this was over, another short affliction, which was an imprisonment of half a year, fell to his share.  During these confinements he wrote the following books, viz.: Of Prayer by the Spirit: The Holy City's Resurrection: Grace Abounding: Pilgrim's Progress, the first part.