How to Pray When You’re Feeling Apathetic about Your Faith
If we take apathy seriously, as does God, we will be better equipped to recognize it when it threatens, avoid it, or at least escape from it earlier.
Articles on Trials and Suffering
288 results found
Embracing God in Your Trials: A 7-Day Devotional
A 7-day video devotional on ESV.org aimed at helping you run to God in the midst of trials and suffering.
The devil is a very real, very powerful opponent, far too powerful for us to take on in our own strength.
When You Don't Even Realize How Discouraged You Are
The truth is, most of us don’t like the look of discouragement. It feels embarrassing. But when we avoid areas of our own insufficiency, we also avoid finding the help we so desperately need.
6 Questions about the Book of Job
The book of Job is realistic in the sufferings it sets before disciples of Jesus and full of glorious hope because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
What to Do When People Don't Sympathize with Your Suffering
In the midst of your heaviest grief, those around you will likely return to life as normal long before you can. Be realistic about people and their ability to enter into your suffering, to stay, and to remember.
Paul Tripp’s Story of Unexpected Suffering
Four years ago, Paul David Tripp entered the hospital with what he thought was a minor issue and began a journey with pain and suffering for which he felt completely unprepared.
6 Reasons Christians Need to Learn to Lament
For hurting people, knowing that this expression of grief is a biblical and a God-given category can be a watershed moment.
A Common Misconception about Suffering
A frequent misconception about suffering often recurs in Christian circles. It says: “You are suffering because God is trying to teach you something.”
Douglas Sean O'Donnell exposes Job's under-the-surface theological foundations that made him hold up under duress.
10 Key Bible Verses on Strength
Call on God for help and strength when yours is lacking, and be encouraged by his sufficiency.
How Can Jesus Possibly Say That Those Who Mourn Are Blessed?
Much of life happens before you are ready. Our hearts race and our minds search for meaning, but some circumstances resist explanation.
Must We Be Hurt Deeply to Be Used Significantly?
We want our grand abilities and keen insights to make us usable to God, not our broken hearts and crippling weaknesses.
Why Is Temptation So Hard to Withstand?
Why do we need a shield to live the Christian life? The Bible is clear: because we have an enemy, who is poised ready to attack us.
6 Ways to Fight the Debilitating Power of Doubt
In your suffering, doubt is a battle worth fighting. Remember, you never fight this battle alone but with the strength that is yours because of the presence and power of Christ.
Fear Not, Your Future Is Secure
No matter how hard your story is right here, right now, it is guaranteed for you as God’s child that it will end better that you can imagine.
The Lord Provides—Even in Tragedy
Any good news in the hospital is a glimmer of God’s grace. Any cure reflects not the power of our own hands, but rather his provision for us.
7 Practical Things You Can Do for People Who Are Grieving
There are simple ways that we can demonstrate a deep sensitivity to the pain of grieving people.
The Key to Not Grumbling in Suffering
It seems to me that suffering without grumbling is one of the world's rarities.
An Open Letter to the Sexual Sufferer
If you are a victim of sexual sin, God offers you true hope and healing.
Viewing the Christian Story through the Lens of Our Suffering
Suffering disrupts our lives, seeming to violate the way life should be. This can make us desperate to know why we are suffering.
The Unbiblical Pursuit of a Trouble-Free Life
How can we keep on loving and serving people when life has so much pain and disappointment? What are the roots of endurance?
We Are Both Job and Job’s Friends
One important question in reading any biblical text is who you, as a reader, identify with. This is easier for some texts than for others. Who do we identify with in the book of Job?
An Open Letter to the Christian Disheartened by Ongoing Temptation
D. A. Carson, John D. Woodbridge
That you are experiencing rounds of temptation is not as unusual as you might suppose. From the inception of the church believers have found this pilgrim way to be strewn with multiple temptations.
Podcast: Verses That Changed My Life (John Piper)
John Piper reflects on key verses that have had a huge impact on his life and helped him grasp the connection between our joy and God’s glory.
How to Pray in Times of Physical Pain
Father in heaven, in spite of all our uncertainties and all our embattled anxieties and all our discomfort, we say, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.
Perhaps the most important reason for reading the book, however, is that Job’s tragedy—an experience of searing pain and loss which did not make sense within any framework Job had—is all too common.
An Open Letter to Those Suffering from Depression
Although you feel hopeless and helpless, I want to assure you that there is hope and there is help.
Why I Believe God Is Sovereign over Suffering
Scripture is not silent when it comes to the question of God's sovereignty in our suffering.
Looking Heavenward Transforms Our Sorrow
Many may think this heavenly-mindedness would make a person detached and ineffective in this present earthly life. The opposite was true for the apostle Paul.