⁸ Brothers and sisters, we don’t want you to be unaware of the troubles that we went through in Asia. We were weighed down with a load of suffering that was so far beyond our strength that we were afraid we might not survive. ⁹ It certainly seemed to us as if we had gotten the death penalty. This was so that we would have confidence in God, who raises the dead, instead of ourselves. ¹⁰ God rescued us from a terrible death, and he will rescue us. We have set our hope on him that he will rescue us again, ¹¹ since you are helping with your prayer for us. Then many people can thank God on our behalf for the gift that was given to us through the prayers of many people.