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If you’re not dealing with hardship now, you will someday. And if you’re not dealing with it now, you are near someone who is.
Articles on Trials and Suffering
310 results found
A Sufferer’s Great Resource in Tragedy
In the early days, the pain and sorrow of losing my son were so intense that I could not focus on anything beyond daily survival. But hope prevailed.
A Momentary Affliction in Light of Eternity
All Christians, especially those who are suffering, should be daydreaming about eternity on a regular basis.
An Open Letter to Those Suffering in the Hospital
Perhaps in the hospital bed, you try to pray but can’t find the words. The spiritual disciplines upon which you’ve depended seem oceans away.
We forget who we are, and when we do, we begin to give way to doubt, fear, and timidity. Identity amnesia makes you feel poor when in fact you are rich.
The Best News Ever for Our Sexual Struggles
What does God give us to face our inevitable struggles and sufferings? The resoundingly glorious answer of Romans 8 is that he gives us the only thing that can truly provide the rescue, wisdom, and strength we need.
Why You'll Never Grieve Well without Hope
To grieve well is to have a growing sense of confidence and rest that God's promises of resurrection, centered in the resurrected Jesus, are really true.
What We Think We're Entitled to in the 21st Century
We realized just how much we had assumed we would have, how many things we believed were almost rights of ours.
Suffering: A 7-Day Reading Plan
This 7-day Bible reading plan was created to help you draw encouragement from God's Word in the midst of suffering—leading to hope in the gospel through the power of the Spirit.
No One in Our Lives “Always” Acts a Certain Way—Except God
Every. Single. Day. Always. The Lord has no off days and no half-hearted days. No days where instead of pursuit he dawdles in his goodness or forgets to follow in his mercy.
My Suffering Savior Taught Me to Sing
My suffering Savior has taught me to always choose a song—a song that fortifies my faith against discouragement and breathes hope into my heart.
Podcast: Where Is God in Suffering? (Ligon Duncan)
How can Christians can face profound life-changing suffering with their faith intact and find encouragement from God's word in the midst of a season of intense pain?
Your Joy and Grief at Christmastime Are a Shadow of Something Greater
During the Christmas season we have a heightened longing for hope, joy, and all that is good and beautiful. And yet these prove to be a mere shadow of what we truly long for.
Spiritual warfare made the Puritans what they were. They accepted conflict as their calling, seeing themselves as their Lord’s soldier-pilgrims.
Podcast: Trauma, Pain, and Loss: A Doctor’s Story of Faith and Healing (Katie Butler)
Kathryn Butler discusses her work as a trauma surgeon working in the ICU, sharing what it was like to be inundated with life and death situations day in and day out.
Passionate about the Trivial and Apathetic about the Vital
The paradox of apathy is that, for the spiritually apathetic, there is an inverse relationship between the greatness of a truth and our emotional and practical response to it.
How to Find Yourself in the Psalms
I love the psalms because we find ourselves, but even more significantly, we find our Lord in the psalms.
Is Doubt the Backstory Behind Your Apathy?
While I am consoled somewhat by the fact that doubts are normal and potentially formative, they still feel like what Lewis calls an emotional “blitz” on my belief.
All the Very Best Stories Lead Us to Hope in the Darkness
Stories, it seems, can remind our kids that in Christ, morning will always come, no matter how deep the darkness.
How to Turn Weeping into Witnessing
We can’t jump straight to It’s alright. God will be good. We can be sure he will, but that’s probably not where we should start.
Podcast: Fighting for Faith in the Midst of Doubt (Glenna Marshall)
Glenna Marshall discusses how we should view our doubts about the Bible, the gospel, and God's love for us, and how our struggles with doubt should give way to a more resilient faith.
George Herbert, Stephen Witmer
The dispeller of despair is Jesus, his eyes closed in the storm but his heart open toward us. That storm, it turns out, is the triumph of his art.
How to Pray in the Wake of Hurricane Dorian
Natural disasters can be a doorway for spiritual questions and eternal decisions. We can do more than just watch and marvel.
The Promises of God: A 7-Day Devotional
We are to treat a promise of God as reality, as someone treats a check. We are to take the promise and endorse it with our own name by personally receiving it as true.
What Is the Best Question to Ask a Hurting Friend?
There are lots of good questions to ask someone who is hurting, but I think one of the best questions is this: "How are you doing today?"
3 Pieces of Advice for Responding to Miscarriage
Miscarriage can be an acutely painful experience. Yet it teaches those who experience it—and the church as a whole—to lean into the Lord's care.
This gospel meditation by Paul David Tripp encourages us to turn to Christ in our hardships, taking even our most difficult moments to him.
Podcast: Asking God "Why" in the Midst of Suffering (Mark Talbot)
Is it okay to ask God why when suffering? What do you do when you go through profound suffering?
When Christ Turns Persecutors into Persecuted (for His Glory)
Jesus is alive, is at work, and he’s bringing men and women to himself.
It’s so unfair. Have you ever said that to God? Or even if you haven’t said it, did you think it? I know I have. I love the answer that Psalm 73 gives to this question of the fairness of God.