Read Hebrews 2:14, 15. How did believers in the Middle Ages experience the reality of the great controversy?

 What was it that cheered the faithful Waldenses during the horrible persecutions they faced? What gave Huss and Jerome, Tyndale, Latimer, and the martyrs of the Middle Ages courage to face the flames and the sword? Faith in the promises of God. They believed Christ’s promise: “Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19). They found His strength sufficient for life’s greatest trials. They even found joy through fellowship with Christ in His sufferings. And their faithfulness was a powerful witness to the world.

 They looked beyond what was to what will be. They knew that, through the resurrection of Christ, death was a defeated foe. For these courageous men and women, the stranglehold of death was broken. They clung to the promises of God’s Word and came away victorious.

 Read John 5:24, John 11:25, 26, and 1 John 5:11-13. What assurances do these promises give you personally? How do they help us in the trials of life?

 John Huss would not falter in the face of imprisonment, injustice, and death itself. He languished in prison for months. The cold, damp conditions brought on a fever that nearly ended his life. Nevertheless, “the grace of God sustained him. During the weeks of suffering that passed before his final sentence, heaven’s peace filled his soul. ‘I write this letter,’ he said to a friend, ‘in my prison, and with my fettered hand, expecting my sentence of death tomorrow. . . . When, with the assistance of Jesus Christ, we shall again meet in the delicious peace of the future life, you will learn how merciful God has shown Himself toward me, how effectually He has supported me in the midst of my temptations and trials.’—Bonnechose, vol. 2, p. 67. In the gloom of his dungeon he foresaw the triumph of the true faith.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy,pp. 107, 108.

 The apostle Paul’s admonition speaks to us with increasing relevance today. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23, NKJV). As the promises of God sustained His people in ages past, so they sustain us today.