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But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4:7-9 (ESV)Dietrich Bonhoeffer: (*The Cost of Discipleship*):
"It is not the religious act that makes the Christian, but participation in the sufferings of God in the secular life. That is renunciation: to die in the fullness of life, to live in the knowledge of death, to have eyes only for the crucified Christ."
Charles Spurgeon: (*Morning and Evening*):
"God's people have their trials and their afflictions, but they are not crushed by them, for the Lord upholds them. The clay is brittle enough, and might well be broken, but the treasure within is safe. The vessel may be chipped and marred, but the glory within cannot be damaged."
Justin Martyr: (*First Apology*, Chapter 12, c. 155 AD):
"We who formerly delighted in fornication now embrace chastity alone; we who formerly used magical arts have dedicated ourselves to the good and unbegotten God; we who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions now bring what we have into a common stock and share with every one in need; we who hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their different manners would not live with men of a different tribe, now, since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them, and pray for our enemies."
Brother Lawrence: (*The Practice of the Presence of God*, Third Conversation):
"That in order to form a habit of conversing with God continually, and referring all we do to Him, we must at first apply to Him with some diligence; but that after a little care we should find His love inwardly excite us to it without any difficulty. That it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times; that we are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action as by prayer in the season of prayer."
What if the affliction you wish God would remove is the very pressure shaping the clay for the treasure it carries?
Seneca: (*Moral Letters to Lucilius*, Letter 78):
"The mind roused by some grievous shock does not feel the wound at once; it is only when the swelling has subsided that the pain begins. You can understand this in the case of those who faint and fall; at first they do not feel the blow -- the real pain comes afterwards. Let us set all this aside, and count it all gain. What does it matter what the nature of the trouble is? Whatever it is, it is of short duration; it will pass away, or you will."
St. Clair, MI: -- Mist, 47°F, Humidity: 93%, Wind: 4 mph from the East