People of Zion, be glad. Be joyful because of what the Lord your God has done. He has given you the right amount of rain in the fall. That’s because he is faithful. He has sent you plenty of showers. He has sent fall and spring rains alike, just as he did before.
“I have told you these things, so that you can have peace because of me. In this world you will have trouble. But be encouraged! I have won the battle over the world.”
There they helped the believers gain strength. They told them to remain faithful to what they had been taught. “We must go through many hard times to enter God’s kingdom,” they said.
Our troubles are small. They last only for a short time. But they are earning for us a glory that will last forever. It is greater than all our troubles.
I answered, “Sir, you know.” He said, “They are the ones who have come out of the time of terrible suffering. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.