We do not choose suffering simply because we are told to, but because the one who tells us to describes it as the path to everlasting joy.
John PiperThe key to praying with power is to become the kind of persons who do not use God for our ends but are utterly devoted to being used for His ends.
John PiperWe are not as Christ-centered and cross-cherishing as we should be, because we do not ponder the truth that everything good, and everything bad that God turns for the good, was purchased by the sufferings of Christ.
John Piper