Ready for Trials, One of the Few

So, as Scripture says, “When you come to serve the Lord, stand in the fear of the Lord, and prepare your mind,” not for rest or carelessness or pleasures, but for trials and troubles. For “through many hardships we must enter the kingdom of God.” For “small is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it.” Consider, then, that you belong to the few and the chosen, and do not grow cold by following the lukewarm examples of the many. Live like the few, so that with the few you may be found worthy of a place in the kingdom of God. For “many are called, but few are chosen,” and it is a “little flock to which it is the Father’s good pleasure to give” an inheritance. You should therefore realize that it is no light sin for one who has professed perfection to follow what is imperfect. And you may reach this state of perfection by the following steps and in the following way. [a]