Throw all your anxiety upon Him, for His concern is about you. Exercise self-control. Be on your guard. Your opponent, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion in search of someone to devour. Firm in your faith, resist him, aware that throughout the world, sufferings of this kind are imposed upon your brothers. But the God of all grace, Who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will, after you have suffered awhile, Himself equip, stabilize, strengthen, and firmly establish you.
   Since we, God's children, are human beings - made of flesh and blood - He became flesh and blood too by being born in human form; for only as a human being could He die and in dying break the power of the devil who had the power of death. Only in that way could He deliver those who through fear of death have been living all their lives as slaves to constant dread.
   Since Christ suffered and underwent pain, you must have the same attitude He did; you must be ready to suffer, too. For remember, when your body suffers, sin loses its power, and you won't be spending the rest of your life chasing after evil desires, but will be anxious to do the will of God.
   Since then it is by faith that we are justified, let us grasp the fact that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have confidently entered into this new relationship of grace, and here we take our stand, in happy certainty of the glorious things He has for us in the future. This doesn't mean, of course, that we have only a hope of future joys - we can be full of joy here and now even in our trials and troubles. These very things will give us patient endurance; this in turn will develop a mature character, and a character of this sort produces a steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint us. Already we have the love of God flooding through our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us. And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't get discouraged and give up. And God, our Source of peace, will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Taken from I Pt. 5, Heb. 2, I Pt. 4, Rom. 5, Gal. 6, Rom. 16, The Modern Language Bible,
The Living Bible, The Phillips Translation and Today's English Version.
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