How important then that the Lord’s servants be vigilant, prayerful, sober and that they habitually walk in the Spirit. Christ will then be their Object and will form the motives of life and service. They will be able to say in some sense, “For to me to live is Christ.”
Satan will not miss an opportunity for sifting such, but God allows the sifting in order to humble. The discovery is made that there is not the spirituality and devotedness as the servants had thought. This leads to a deeper sense of what divine grace has wrought in them, and this is what God can use.
They (and we all) need to beware of the decline in appreciation of divine love the weakening of affectionate fidelity to Christ. Once slipping away—“thou hast left thy first love” (Rev. 2:44Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. (Revelation 2:4))—the tendency is to accelerate this weakened condition.
They must not look for any position of outward public approval or to be anything other than poor and afflicted.
From a personal letter