⁸ Our Christian friends, we want you to know about the trouble that we had in Asia. Those troubles were very painful. We ourselves were not strong enough to continue. We even thought that we would die. ⁹ We ourselves thought that we would certainly die. We knew that we could not trust our own strength. We had to trust God. He is the one who causes dead people to rise up to new life. So we could trust him to make us strong. ¹⁰ We nearly died, but God saved us from that great danger. We know that we can continue to trust him. He will save us from any future danger.