God respects you as much in a low as in a high condition; and therefore it need not so much trouble you to be made low; nay, he manifests more of his love, grace and tenderness in the time of affliction than in the time of prosperity. As God did not at first choose you because you were high, he will not now forsake you because you are low. Men may look shy upon you, and alter their respects as your condition is altered. When Providence hath blasted your estate, your summer friends may grow strange, fearing you may be troublesome to them; but will God do so? No, no. “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” says he. If adversity and poverty could bar you from access to God, it were indeed a sad condition; but, so far from this, you may go to him as freely as ever.
John Flavel. Keeping the Heart.
