7 Moreover, our hope for you remains staunch, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, you will also share in the encouragement.

8 For, brothers, we want you to know about the trials we have undergone in the province of Asia. The burden laid on us was so far beyond what we could bear that we even despaired of living through it.

9 In our hearts we felt we were under sentence of death. However, this was to get us to rely not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead!