No matter what kind of suffering we suffer, we should train ourselves to hate this life and be driven to meditate on the afterlife. Because God knows best how much we are born to love the world, he will stop us in the most appropriate way, get rid of our laziness and let us not love the world too much. Every believer wants to look up to and seek eternal life in heaven all his life. Because it is extremely shameful that we are not as good as animals. But if we have no hope of eternal life after death, then we are no different from animals. However, if you look at people's plans, efforts and all their behaviors, you will find that they all belong to this world. The reason why our hearts are confused by the wealth, power and honor in the world is to prove our ignorance. We are also full of greed, ambition and lust, so we can't feel anything outside the secular world. In a word, a person's whole soul is attracted by the temptation of the body and completely seeks happiness in the world. In order to resist this evil, God constantly proves the misery of this world, so as to teach believers the falsity of this world. Lest they expect to be satisfied with their peace in the world forever, God often makes them encounter wars, disputes, robberies or other disasters. In order to restrain their eager pursuit of fleeting money, or rely on their own wealth, God banished them, suffered from famine, fire, or otherwise impoverished them, or at least prevented them from getting rich. In order to prevent them from enjoying the happiness brought by marriage excessively, God tests them with the pain of losing their wives, children or relatives. However, if God treats them generously in all these things, but in order to prevent them from becoming conceited because of pride or self-confidence, God makes them know how unreliable and fleeting things are through illness and disaster.
Only when we find that the world is full of troubles and hardships in all aspects, there are many things that make us unhappy and no one is happy, can we really experience the suffering of the cross. Unless we find that the happiness brought by this world is unreliable, fleeting, empty and brings us all kinds of harm, only in this way can we benefit. Therefore, we can only look forward to the war in this world; We should remind ourselves that our crown is in the sky. In a word, we must be sure that man will never seriously seek and meditate on the afterlife unless he begins to hate this life in his heart.
(Excerpt from the author's book Christian Essentials, translated by Calvin's Christian Essentials Translation Team, Calvin Publishing House, with additional title. )