You do not find one godly man who came out of an affliction worse than when he went into it; though for a while he was shaken, yet at last he was better for an affliction. But a great many godly men, you find, have been worse for their prosperity.

If any adversity coming across our path were not beneficial, God would not allow it or send it: "He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone" (Lamentations 3:33, NIV). God does not delight in our suffering. He brings only that which is necessary, but He does not shrink from that which will help us grow.

our suffering has meaning and purpose in God's eternal plan, and He brings or allows to come into our lives only that which is for His glory and our good.

We are to look beyond our adversity to what God is doing in our lives and rejoice in the certainty that He is at work in us to cause us to grow.

We must see our circumstances through God's love instead of, as we are prone to do, seeing God's love through our circumstances.

If we are going to learn to trust God in adversity, we must believe that just as certainly as God will allow nothing to subvert His glory, so He will allow nothing to spoil the good He is working out in us and for us.

Later he had seen the things that he could never think of and later still he had seen much worse.

It made him feel as a wound does that you think you cannot bear. But you can bear anything, he thought.

But why must all the operations in life be performed without an anesthetic?

And pain does not matter to a man.

Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man. Or a fish.

Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man. Or a fish, he thought.