Why was Paul able to avoid despair despite being troubled, perplexed, persecuted, and cast down?
In 2 Corinthians 11 Paul gives an account of the troubles he has endured as a missionary. He does so reluctantly, but he wants the erring Corinthians to understand the price he has paid to bring them the true Gospel of Christ. Whether whipped, starved, or in utter deprivation, he has gone forward with his work: “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness” (2 Cor. 11:24-27). If the physical trials and harassment weren’t enough, Paul also had to endure anxieties because of the faithlessness of his friends: He suffer
