“When you are forgotten, neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you smile inwardly, glorying in the insult or the oversight, because thereby you are counted worthy to suffer with Christ — that is victory.
“When your good is evil spoken of, your wishes are crossed, your taste offended, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and you take it all in patient, loving silence — that is victory.
“When you are content with any food, any raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption by the will of God — that is victory.
“When you can lovingly and patiently deal with any disorder, any irregularity, any unpunctuality, or any annoyance — that is victory.
“When you never need to refer to yourself in conversation or to record your own good works, or to itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown — that is victory.
“When you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility, and endure it as Jesus endured it — that is victory.
“When, like Paul, you can throw all your suffering on Jesus, thus converting it into a means of knowing His overcoming grace, and can say from a surrendered heart, “most gladly therefore [do] I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake” — that is victory (2 Cor. 12:7-10).
“When you can love the grace that comes through being instructed how “to be hungry ... and to suffer need” equally as much as you love the faith required to know how “to be full ... and to abound” — that is victory (Phil. 4:1212I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. (Philippians 4:12)).
“When death and life are both alike to you through Christ, and you delight not more in one than the other — that is victory; for through Him you may become able to say, “Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death” (Phil. 1:20; 120According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. (Philippians 1:20)
20According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. (Philippians 1:20) Cor. 15:54).
(Note: This little meditation has an interesting story. A soldier serving over in France during WW2 saw this paper floating around as he was walking one day. He picked it up and read the above. No author was named on the paper.)