Who provides the strength to endure persecution and testing?
The Lord God Himself provides the strength to endure persecution and testing. The same Lord who permits such trials to enter a believer's life is the One who supplies the needed strength to go through them, and His consolation abounds by Christ.
Les explains that the Christian life is not a rose-petaled pathway; it is like paddling a canoe upstream, a constant battle against Satan and the world. Yet he points to the promise that as believers go through testing and discouragement, the Lord God Himself encourages them. Paul speaks from his own experience: as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, our consolation also abounds by Christ. The same Lord who permits persecutions and testings to come into a life is the same Lord who provides the strength to go through them. Les also notes that early believers under the Roman yoke faced constant persecution, so becoming a believer under Paul's preaching was an invitation to persecution.
For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.