“It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.”
(Psalm 119:71)
"Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."
(Acts 14:22)
“For the kingdom of God is, , righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
(Romans 14:7)
It's a marvel to me how many commentators feel it is adequate to be sustained by endurance alone for those times of hardship, tells me they don’t have confidence in the ability of the Spirit to strengthen us. Thank God, some do!
“God, who has appointed afflictions for his people, and them to afflictions; and partly on account of the predictions of Christ, who foretold his disciples, that in the world they should have tribulation; as also, that there might be a conformity to him, that as he the head must, and did suffer many things, and enter into his glory, so must they his members: as well as likewise for the trial and exercise of the several graces of the Spirit, and to make the saints meet for heaven, and to make that the sweeter to them.” – J. Gill