As Church Leaders

Paul

Acts 9:15-16 

15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 

16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

Romans 8:18 

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 

4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 

5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 

6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 

7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

2 Corinthians 4:7-18 

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 

8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 

9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 

10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 

11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.

12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 

14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 

15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 

17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 

18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 6:4-10 

4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 

5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 

6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 

7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 

8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 

9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 

10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

2 Corinthians 11:22-30 

22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. 

23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 

24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 

25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 

26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 

27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.

28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 

29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 

7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 

8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 

10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

All believers

1 Thessalonians 2:14-16

14 For you, brothers, became imitators of God's churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, 

15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men 

16 in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.

2 Timothy 3:12 

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,