「我們被壓太重，力不能勝，甚至連活命的指望都絕了，自己裡面也斷定是必死的，叫我們不信靠自己，只信靠那叫死人復活的神。」－哥林多後書1:8-9
每經過了一次死裡逃生的經驗，在感受上就像似體驗了一次重獲新生的機會；我們因此更明白生命的價值，也更願意為著神、為著別人而活。
壓力使我們能體恤他人的苦難，也使我們有能力同情、幫助。
有一些空洞、淺薄的人，以為胡亂抓住神一個應許，就能批評別人的小信，數落別人逃避試煉。
真實的經過苦難的人不會如此，他們會體貼、同情，因為他們知道在受苦中的心情。
保羅說：「死是在我們身上發動，生命卻在你們身上發動。」（哥林多後書4:12）
是苦難和艱難，使我們能昂首向前直往。好像船上的火爐釋放出強大的能量，推動引擎轉動，使大船勇猛地乘風破浪。－宣信
"I was crushed...so much so that I despaired even of life, but that was to make me rely not on myself, but on the God who raises the dead" (2 Cor. 1:8, 9).The pressure of hard places makes us value life. Every time our life is given back to us from such a trial, it is like a new beginning, and we learn better how much it is worth, and make more of it for God and man. The pressure helps us to understand the trials of others, and fits us to help and sympathize with them.
There is a shallow, superficial nature, that gets hold of a theory or a promise lightly, and talks very glibly about the distrust of those who shrink from every trial; but the man or woman who has suffered much never does this, but is very tender and gentle, and knows what suffering really means. This is what Paul meant when he said, "Death worketh in you."
Trials and hard places are needed to press us forward, even as the furnace fires in the hold of that mighty ship give force that moves the piston, drives the engine, and propels that great vessel across the sea in the face of the winds and waves. --A. B. Simpson
