Humility, Repentance and Prayer have the ability to hold back the righteous threatening of God's hand, or at the least, mitigate our personal experience of it, and at the very least, determine the degree of benefit and or harm that whatever we may or may not have to endure, brings to us.

At any rate, I highly recommend the study of the history of the Catacomb Church and the lives of the first Christian Martyrs with an eye towards emulation on our part.