According to the opening chapters of 2 Corinthians we see the progression from trials to the resultant joy. Consider how Paul’s life was filled with hardship: “Affliction” (1:4), “abundant…suffering” (1:5), “burdened excessively, beyond...strength” (1:8), “sentence of death within ourselves” (1:9), “sorrowful” (2:1), “affliction and anguish of heart” (2:4), “afflicted [and] perplexed” (4:8), “persecuted [and] struck down (4:9), “constantly being delivered over to death” (4:11), “beatings...imprisonments...tumults...labors...sleeplessness...hunger” (6:5), “dishonor [and] evil report” (6:8), “dying [and] punished (6:9) and “having nothing (6:10). And that only takes us through chapter 6! And might I add that most if not all of this was related to his faithful service to Christ. So how can you go from this agony to praise to God? Answer: It was Paul knowing that Christians need to “walk by faith [and] not by sight” (5:7). And it’s this faith that recalls that every promise of God is fulfilled to us in Christ (1:20). We know we are “established…and anointed…in Christ” (1:21). We are “sealed” and given “the [Holy] Spirit in our hearts as a pledge” (1:22). We are “reconciled to God” (5:20). As a result of these truths, we “do not lose heart” (4:1) because we are [controlled by] the love of Christ” (5:14)and through our trials we are learning in those trials to “trust [more]...in God who raises the dead” (1:9). So therefore while we are “sorrowful” as a result of trials, we are because of God's promises 'always rejoicing' (6:10).