Think of the inconceivable reward held out to thee. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. viii. 18). Whatever our suffering may be here, it is only for a time—nay, it is sometimes but for a day—but the glory that awaits us is forever and ever. God knows perfectly all our adversities, and some day He will bring them all into judgment (Ecc. xii. 14). Oh, how distressing it will be for us to appear in that august gathering of all the universe without the ornaments of the cross and of our sufferings for Christ upon us. “And God Himself shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Is. xxv. 8; Rev. vii. 17; xxi. 4). O happy tears, which such a hand of such a Lord shall wipe away! O blessed cross, that shall in heaven be exchanged for such a reward! Scarce ten years did King David spend in exile, but for forty he ruled in his kingdom (2 Sam. v. 5). Here we may see prefigured the brevity of our life of suffering, and the unending glory which is to follow. ’Tis but a mere point of time after all in which the saints of God, often objects of the world’s pity, suffer the hardships of the cross; for “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Ps. xxx. 5). (Gerhard’s Sacred Meditations – XLI: The Principle of Christian Patience, Repristination Press, p. 236-237)

Rest in the Lord, O devout soul, and bear patiently the cross imposed upon thee by God. Meditate upon the awful passion of Christ, thy spiritual Spouse. He suffered in behalf of all, He suffered at the hands of all, He suffered in all things. He suffered for all, even for those who despised His Holy passion and trampled under foot the blood of the covenant, counting it an unholy thing (Heb. x. 29). He suffered at the hands of all. He is delivered up (Rom. viii. 32), He is stricken (Is. liii. 4, 5), He is forsaken (Matt. xxvii. 46) by His heavenly Father, He is deserted by the disciples whom He loved (Matt. xxvi. 56), He is rejected by the Jews, His own peculiar people (Matt. xxvii. 21, 22), who chose the robber Barabbas instead of Himself. He is crucified by the Gentiles, He bore the sins of all mankind, and so the whole race was concerned in the guilt of His death. He suffered, also, in every conceivable way. His soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death (Matt. xxvi. 38); and, overwhelmed with a sense of the divine judgment, He cried out on the cross that He was forsaken of God (Matt. xxvii. 46). His body sweat, as it were, drops of blood (Luke xxii. 44); His head is crowned with thorns; His lips taste the bitter myrrh; His hands and His feet are pierced with nails (Ps. xxii. 17); His side is lacerated with the spear; His whole body is scourged and stretched upon the cross. Ah! He suffered hunger, thirst, cold, contempt, poverty, insult, wounds, and the awful death of the cross. But oh, how unseemly it would be that the Lord should suffer thus, while the servant lives in undisturbed joy! Oh, how unseemly it would be that our Saviour should be severely punished for our sins, and we should continue to take delight in them! How unjust it would be that the head of the body should be afflicted, and the rest of the members should not suffer with it! Nay, rather, as it behooved Christ to suffer, and thus to enter into His heavenly glory (Luke xxiv. 26), so also we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God (Acts xiv. 22).
(Gerhard’s Sacred Meditations – XLI: The Principle of Christian Patience, Repristination Press, p. 235-236)