DR. HENRY BRANDT told of going to visit a friend whose wife had died. While there he shared these wonderful words of the apostle Paul from II Cor. 1: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 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.
a. "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
"He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers" (vs. 3-4, 8-11a).
His friend thanked Dr. Brandt, saying that he was the first person to offer him strength and hope. All the others had said things like, "I don’t know how you can stand it. I just couldn’t take it. You poor thing. Oh, how awful"