10 Key Bible Verses on Persecution
Jesus suffered and died on behalf of sinners and calls blessed those that follow in his steps for his name’s sake.
Articles on Trials and Suffering
297 results found
11 Passages to Read When You Feel Lonely
Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.
Even those in their prime with perfect health have limits. We need a stronger strength to match our deep discouragements.
10 Key Bible Verses on Contentment
A believer’s contentment is not to be affected by circumstances, but firmly rooted in the good news of Christ and what he has accomplished for sinners.
How Suffering Reveals Your True Self
When the thing you have been trusting is laid to waste, you don’t suffer just the loss of that thing; you also suffer the loss of the identity and security that it provided.
10 Passages to Read with Someone Who Is Near Death
Consider reading these passages if you are together with someone nearing the end of their life and you are searching for comfort in God's word.
7 Passages to Read about God’s Protection
God is an ever-present help in trouble. Read from Scripture these truths about God's nearness to those who call upon his name.
10 Key Bible Verses on Courage
The Christian life isn’t guaranteed to be without struggle and strife—and it undoubtedly requires courage. God’s Word invites us to trust in God’s power and strength, and not our own.
10 Key Bible Verses on Hardship
With the power and presence of Jesus in our lives, we are called to endure and thus shine the light of Christ in a dark world.
How to Pray When You’re Feeling Depressed
During seasons of depression or anxiety, most of us find it hard to concentrate, we feel God is far away, and we despair of God hearing us or helping us.
Depression can be quite as fiery a trial as any other. The good news is that God does indeed hear the cry of the afflicted.
10 Things You Should Know about Suffering
Suffering is not outside of God's control and he has a purpose for it.
4 Reasons for Hope in Suffering
In our suffering God is at work to give us something much better than what we want.
What the Apostle Paul Teaches Us about Suffering
When God called Paul from being the church’s persecutor to be a gospel preacher, the Lord showed him how much he would suffer for the sake of his name.
Podcast: A Christian Doctor’s Guide to Thinking about Coronavirus (Bob Cutillo, MD)
A Christian doctor discusses the current coronavirus pandemic, explaining what's currently happening in the US and around the world and offering perspective on how we should think about this virus.
10 Key Bible Verses on Endurance
The Christian life requires strength, fortitude, and endurance. The path marked out for believers is never promised to be easy or smooth.
5 Ways the COVID-19 Pandemic Points Us to the Gospel
When we are weary and distraught, we have a place to go. Jesus welcomes us to come to him and cast our cares on him.
8 Short Questions about Faith, Hope, and Love
The whole Christian life, in terms of our living in response to God and his new work in us, springs from faith, hope, and love. Everything we do as Christians relates to these three virtues.
How Psalm 73 Speaks to the Christian Experience
A goal for all of us is to be able to say Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you.
6 Questions about Christ’s Heart for Sinners
We cannot present a reason for Christ to finally close off his heart to his own sheep. No such reason exists.
Christian Sufferer, Your Lord Is Near
I can’t think of anything that is more powerfully comforting than these words: I will never leave you or forsake you.
An Open Letter to the Suffering Christian
Jesus is a most sympathetic friend, fellow sufferer, and Savior. He has walked a hard road and he understands.
Will the Unsaved Suffer Eternal Judgment? (2 Thessalonians 1)
Salvation comes by grace through faith to believers, who consequently display their faith as they continue to trust in Jesus, heedless of suffering and persecution in this life.
4 Misconceptions about Contentment
One of our greatest struggles with contentment is that we often have an incorrect picture of what it means to be content.
10 Passages to Read in the Face of Global Conflict
God is our refuge and strength. Read these passages for comfort and to help guide prayer during times of worldwide strife, conflict, and war.
Feeling hopeless and helpless is a feeling that we all have encountered at various times in our lives. This feeling or thought is the most painful part of all mental illness.
God Is Our Fortress—A Reading of Psalm 46 by Kristyn Getty
Be encouraged by this reading of Psalm 46 by Kristyn Getty, and rest in the promises of God to be with us—and for us—in our time of need.
10 Key Bible Verses on Strength
Call on God for help and strength when yours is lacking, and be encouraged by his sufficiency.
James calls on Christians to reckon any situation, however difficult, as an occasion of intense joy. Not every element of suffering is joy. But, however severe one’s suffering, every trial is a time for intense joy.
A Message to the Christian Battling Sexual Sin
We can't blame our environment for our struggles. The root of our wrong thinking about sex is not cultural, it's our own hearts.
Can a Christian Have Mental Illness?
Some Christians believe that Christians cannot have mental illness. If a professing Christian is depressed, anxious, or bipolar, they think it’s because they are not a real Christian, or it's because of unrepented sin.
10 Key Bible Verses on Weakness
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
We May Be Confused, but God Isn’t
As much as we try to make sense of our lives, there are things that we simply aren’t able to understand.
God’s Plan for Your Discontentment
There is room for the power of Christ to rest on you in such a way that it will give you the strength to be content even as you continue to live your life in the wilderness of this world.
5 Lessons from Shakespeare's Hamlet
Leland Ryken compels us to focus on both the content and the form of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
How to Face the Death of Someone You Love
We’ve all experienced the desolation of being left in one way or another.
An Open Letter to the Weary Pastor
The gospel gives hope and encouragement to weary pastors—hope and encouragement that cannot be found anywhere else.
10 Things You Should Know about Persecution
After telling his followers about his forthcoming death and resurrection, Jesus told them that they were to follow him by taking up their cross.
How to Pray for a Loved One Struggling with Mental Illness
When God gives us the right spirit in prayer—the spirit of hope, patience, and love—that will usually result in the right petitions.
4 Prayers to Pray through Spiritual Darkness
Turn to the Lord in prayer and in his word during times of despair and discouragement. He is near and read to defend, protect, and preserve those he loves.
The Reason We Don't Feel the Weight of Our Sin
Just as we can hardly fathom the divine ferocity awaiting those out of Christ, it is equally true that we can hardly fathom the divine tenderness already resting now on those in Christ.
Suffering with a Christian Worldview
The question we must always ask of suffering is this: What could possibly be worth it? Jesus’s flabbergasting claim is that he is.
Did Jesus Ever Complain to God?
Many Christians don't have a category for complaint—what it means to humbly and biblically take our sorrows to the Lord.
Suffering and Hope in the Time of COVID-19
In these circumstances, we may find ourselves wondering, Where is God? How can these things be happening if God is perfectly good and all-powerful? Can’t he stop them? Doesn’t he want to?
A Christian Doctor Answers Questions about COVID-19
Read answers to common questions related to COVID-19 from a Christian physician.
Waiting on the Lord Is Not a Waste
You’re not doing anything, but God is. Waiting is one of the greatest applications of the Christian faith.
15 Things Seminary Couldn’t Teach Me
Real pastors get honest about the joys and challenges of the first five years of pastoral ministry—and how they bridged the gap between seminary training and life in a local church.
10 Things You Should Know about Grieving People
People who are grieving don’t expect that you are going to say something that will make everything okay.
The Day My Worst Nightmare Came True
Four years ago, Cameron Cole came face-to-face with his worst nightmare. The one thing that he hoped and prayed would never happen, did happen.
Is the Story of Job Historical? (Job 1)
Was there really a man named Job? Did he live in a land called Uz? Was he perfectly righteous with a perfectly blessed life? Put simply, did the author of Job create the whole drama?
Is It Possible to Suffer Well?
It takes discipline to carry pain with you while not letting it asphyxiate you. It will not crush you if you believe Christ is in it.
An Open Letter to the Parent Who Has Lost a Child
As a parent whose child died four and a half years ago, I want to offer you two hopeful words about that wound in your heart that never will fully heal on this side of eternity.
How to Pray When You’re Tempted by Anger
Here are five things you might focus on in your prayers as you seek to do the heart work necessary in your own circumstances.
If you were to take a quick survey, there’d be a strong consensus that waiting is difficult, annoying, or downright bad. Waiting should be avoided and not affirmed, right?
Why It's Destructive to Deny God's Sovereignty in Suffering
To deny God's control over suffering actually severs the root of our comfort when facing tragedy.
Is God Far Away When He Feels Far Away?
Scripture captures both the subjective experience of being internally broken and the external experience of having something objectively hard circumstances.
5 Questions about Mental Illness
Mental illness is an old problem; as old as the fall. Although God made everything very good, when sin entered, humanity—together with the rest of the creation—came under the divine curse.
10 Things You Should Know about Infertility
Infertility is a more common experience than some realize affecting 7–10% of couples.
How to Care for a Loved One with Depression
Although the task may seem daunting, as stewards of the greatest message of hope in history Christians are uniquely positioned to minister to those grappling with depression.
Paul Miller’s Story of Learning to Love
Paul Miller shares his story of learning to love by discovering the pattern of Jesus’s life.
Why Do We Sometimes Feel Empty?
Perhaps you have come to see your emptiness as your biggest problem. That’s not how God sees it.
4 Questions about Our Suffering
Why are we to rejoice in our suffering? Why do we suffer in the ways that we do, and why do some suffer much more than others? Why doesn’t God usually answer our prayers for him to end our suffering?
An Open Letter to Those Who Feel Unqualified to Offer Counsel
The Lord specializes in using people who feel weak in themselves, and your sense of inadequacy will probably protect you.
Jesus Is Not Ashamed of Those Who Are Hurting and Hopeless
Be amazed at the power of Christ to transform a helpless man; but also, marvel at the love of Christ that claims rebels like this as his own.
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.
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.
The devil is a very real, very powerful opponent, far too powerful for us to take on in our own strength.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Douglas Sean O'Donnell exposes Job's under-the-surface theological foundations that made him hold up under duress.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
An Open Letter to the Sexual Sufferer
If you are a victim of sexual sin, God offers you true hope and healing.
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.
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.
God’s grace sustains us, even in the darkest hours, so that we never give up. Psalm 88 offers four lessons of hope.
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.
To Cry Is Human, but to Lament Is Christian
Every human being has the same opening story. Life begins with tears. It’s simply a part of what it means to be human—to cry is human. But lament is different.
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.
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.
3 Things to Avoid When Ministering to Those Suffering from Mental Illness
We make many mistakes in what we say to sufferers. Partly because of ignorance, discomfort, or fear, we end up saying nothing, or nothing helpful, or everything wrong.
What to Do When It Feels Like God Is against You
When you’re facing times of trouble and it feels like God is against you, there are two important things to do.
What to Say to Someone Suffering like Job
The book of Job does not directly tell us how to address Job-like suffering. But I think we can sketch what a helpful answer would be, if we take an approach exactly opposite from the friends.
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.
A Word for the Discouraged Christian
The Apostle Paul remembered who he was in Christ. He remembered that beating within him is none other than Christ himself—the indwelling Christ with all his resources of power and love and joy.
Finding God's Grace While Waiting for a Prodigal
By God’s grace, waiting on a prodigal can actually strengthen your faith.
How Advent Teaches Us to Wait Well
The hardest thing about waiting is not knowing when it’s going to end, if it is going to end.
The Importance of Preaching the Theology of Suffering
Preach to your people a theology of suffering that places all our trials in the hands and will of a loving Father.
Infographic: Do Women Need to Slow Their Pace?
We asked over 6,000 people to share their experience with stress and burnout. In this infographic, we present some of the interesting results.
You Need a Theology of Uncomfortable Grace
Mourning acknowledges that the world is not the way God meant it to be. Mourning cries out for God’s redeeming, restoring hand.
Podcast: Does Jesus Really Like Me? (Dane Ortlund)
What does Scripture say about God's disposition towards us as redeemed sinners? What does it mean that Jesus is "gentle and lowly in heart"?
True Peace Isn’t Found in the Absence of Conflict
When pain tempts me to feel disheartened and glumly stare out a window, I stand up to my miserable emotions. I quell those dark feelings by singing about peace and resting my soul in God.
What Grieving People Wish You Knew
Four things grieving people wish we knew about grief to help us confidently interact and helpfully take action.
Godly growth and change happens through 5 influences and circumstances: God, Scripture, wise people, suffering, and you.
An Open Letter to the Woman Struggling with Aging
If you’re like most women, fear about your changing physical appearance is just the beginning of aging anxiety. Many of us struggle with aging because we know it is often a season of loss.
What I Learned in My Season of Depression
God, in his love and wisdom, chose this very specific trial for me.
Struggling in Your Faith? Isolation Isn’t the Answer
The hardest thing for struggling Christians to recognize is that church is exactly the community they need.
What Does God Think of My Pain?
While Christians are never promised immunity from suffering, they are promised a purpose in the midst of it.
12 Truths for Depressed and Anxious Christians
Richard Baxter, Michael S. Lundy
Be sure that a theological error is not the root of your distress. Especially have a solid understanding of the covenant of grace and the riches of mercy revealed in Christ.
An Open Letter to Women Straining under the Burden of Expectations
Are you worn down by the weight of the countless roles and expectations in your life? Are you feeling the pressure of doing more and striving harder to please the people around you?
Signs You Are on the Pathway from Stressed to Depressed
God has a purpose for even our most difficult seasons. He offers hope and eternal perspective in the midst of them.
Understanding Teen Anxiety and Depression
One of the best things we can do for our teens is to explain to them that many teens suffer in the same way.
Tips for Students Facing Doubt in the Real World
When facing doubts and fears, the last thing you want to do is isolate yourself and struggle alone.
Survival mode for the weary Christian is not hibernation from Christ but perseverance in Christ.
10 Things You Should Know about Sexual Assault
If you were the victim of sexual assault, you were sinned against. Despite all the pain, healing can happen and there is hope.
The Danger of Neglecting Lament in the Local Church
Lament is a rich but untapped reservoir of God’s grace, and there is a danger in neglecting lament in the church.
10 Ways Not to Help a Hurting Friend
There are ways to care for the hurting that look helpful on the surface, but in the end may only add to the pain.
An Open Letter to Those Caring for a Loved One with Dementia
Taking responsibility for the care of a person suffering from any stage of dementia can be one of the greatest challenges of life. But there are not only challenges. There are also opportunities.
What Is the Ultimate Goal of Sexual Renewal?
Depending on the particular struggle we face, the Lord knows how to renew us sexually in exactly the ways we most need.
God saves people for a purpose. Salvation in Christ begins a life spent growing into being like him and serving him faithfully.
We all long for the restoration that will come when God gives us new, resurrected bodies. But we don’t have those bodies yet.
Is Sexual Renewal a Simple or Complex Process?
The journey to sexual renewal is a complex but worthwhile battle.
Pastor, Don’t Quit—Learn to Lament
In order to stem the tide of weariness and burn-out, pastors should learn how to lament.
What Should I Do When I'm Bearing Unbearable Suffering?
In the midst of pain and suffering, we must preach truth to ourselves rather than listening to the lies in our own heads.
Why We Need the Psalms of Lament
The Psalms help us express our pain to God, knowing that he hears our cries.
4 Traps to Avoid When You Suffer
How we respond to suffering shapes our experiences with suffering.
Nancy Guthrie's Story of Hope in the Midst of Grief
When Nancy Guthrie's daughter, Hope, was born, she quickly learned that something was wrong. Doctors informed her and her husband, David, that all of the little things that weren't quite right with Hope were evidence …
3 Steps to Take If You’ve Been Waiting on God
If you are walking through a season that is leading you to feel frustrated, anxious, or impatient, here are some steps that can help.
Is “Mental Illness” a Helpful Label?
Labels can be helpful in beginning to describe or define what we are talking about, but labels can also cause difficulties.
An Open Letter to Victims of Abuse
Justin S. Holcomb, Lindsey A. Holcomb
Disgrace is the opposite of grace. Grace is love that seeks you out even if you have nothing to give in return.
How to Hope in God When Life Gets Hard
Simply knowing the end of the story gives us hope in our present circumstances.
Help! It Feels Like God Is Far Away in My Suffering
Lament is the biblical language for people who feel like God is distant.
3 Doctrines That Sustain Us in Suffering
While we may not understand what God is doing, we can always trust who he is. We must never interpret God’s character by our circumstances.
The Book of Job Is a Book of Joy
“Joy” is probably the last word most of us would use to describe the book of Job. What could be less joyful than the nightmare of Job’s suffering?
Your Salvation Doesn’t Depend on Your Feelings
If our salvation depended upon our feelings, we should be lost one day and saved another, for they are as fickle as the weather.
The Problem of Pain Is a Problem for Everyone
There are only a few ways to handle this issue, and all of them feel incomplete. So the question is this: Which incomplete answer will you embrace to help you with the problem of evil?
Help! I Don’t Know If My Words Are Helping or Hurting
Cheryl Marshall, Caroline Newheiser
As you have conversations with those who are suffering, remember how the Lord’s healing words have strengthened and sustained you in your own times of trouble.
9 Notable Quotes from Coronavirus and Christ
The only firm foundation we have in an unpredictable world is the rock of Jesus Christ.
Podcast: Help! My Teen Is Struggling with Anxiety and Depression (David Murray)
Why is teen anxiety and depression on the rise, and what can parents do to help their children who are struggling?
The Unresolved “Why” of Suffering
When tragedy strikes, almost everyone who believes in God, along with almost everyone who claims they don’t, asks the same question: Why does God allow suffering?
The Importance of Lament in the Midst of COVID-19
The more you know about lament, the more things really come alive to you in reading Jeremiah's lament. His lament is so relevant to the suffering that we’re going through right now.
Hope in the Midst of Languishing
Spiritual growth in seasons of languishing is more about persevering through the struggle for belief than it is about arriving at a settled conclusion.
How Suffering Can Be Our Teacher
There’s no way you’re ever going to learn endurance without having to keep on going through something hard that doesn’t go away.
No More Hiding behind the Past
The Bible has a lot to teach us when it comes to thinking about our pasts. Whatever your situation may be, it is no surprise to God. Our challenge is to not allow the past to control our walk with God in the present.
Don’t Let Go of God’s Sovereignty over Your Worst
God did and does have something to do with your tragedy. I know this sounds like a cruel statement, but stay with me. There is hope in the end.
Watch Out for Functional Atheism
In the midst of storms in your life, have you forgotten who Jesus is?
An Open Letter to the Christian Frontline Medical Worker
The work to which you’ve devoted your life can plunge you into your darkest hours, luring you into doubts about God’s love, perhaps even about his existence. Where is God in all this?
David Powlison’s Answer to the Question “Why Me?”
David Powlison (1949–2019) reminds us that God does not offer advice and perspective from afar; he steps into our suffering.
A Word to Parents at Their Breaking Point
It can be helpful to manage your expectations of what normal life can and should be, and recognize that the season you’re in is intensely difficult in a particular way and that it won’t always be that way.
9 Principles for Navigating Anxiety and Depression with Your Teen
What are the general principles to bear in mind as you begin to work with your teen through anxiety and depression?
Podcast: The Day I Lost My 3-Year-Old Son (Cameron Cole)
Cameron Cole talks about losing his three-year-old son and how that tragedy and all the suffering it entailed has ultimately strengthened his hope in God.
A Story of Grace in the Face of Infertility
Read the personal story of a couple who experienced infertility for a period long enough to know the pressures, anxieties, absences, and losses that so commonly define the experience.
How Suffering Crushes Our Unrealistic Expectations
Our expectation is that tomorrow will be just the same as today was, but this world is not operating the way that God intended for it to operate.
Don't Miss What God Is Teaching You in Your Pain
God works through our weakness to bring glory to his name and make it absolutely clear that it's him who's at work.
3 Important Truths Job’s Friends Neglected
In the context of the whole Bible, perhaps the deepest error and omission of Job’s friends is this: they have no place for innocent suffering.
What the Church Today Needs to Hear from the Book of Revelation
This message to patiently endure persecution for Christ is a message our church needs today. And if where we are right now means we don’t need it today, maybe we will tomorrow.
How to Pray in Times of Trouble
When we cannot articulate our prayer requests to God, the Holy Spirit understands our groanings and translates them into intelligible prayers that God the Father can understand and will answer.
How to Die for the Glory of God
Coming to the end of life can be very self-centered and that’s antithetical to the gospel. When I die, I want my life to reflect the gospel.
9 Notable Quotes from ‘Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy’
Lament gives us a language to express our grief and sorrow to God, while asking him to lead us to deeper trust.
What Not to Say to a Grieving Person
Here are three things that grieving people wish no one would ever say to them again.
There’s no guarantee that because we’re in a saving relationship with God through Christ that we’re going to be exempt from darkness.
An Open Letter to the Child Facing End-of-Life Decisions for a Parent
How can you make rational medical decisions while flailing in grief? Even if you know your parent’s wishes, the burdens can feel too heavy.
John Piper’s Prayer for the COVID-19 Pandemic
Grant recovery. Grant a cure. Deliver us—your poor, helpless creatures—from these sorrows, we pray.
The Mission Field I Never Expected
For those of us who are parents, God wants us to esteem the field he’s given us. It’s not a tiring distraction from the true mission field we should be tilling.
Jesus knows that true power only flows through weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
2 Reasons We Don’t Know How to Lament
The notion that lament isn't familiar is actually an indictment of the state of the American church.
Caregiving Is a Stewardship of Grace
It is easy to focus on physical needs in desperate times, but by God’s grace, remember there are spiritual issues, too.
Why We Don't Have to Hide Our Pain from God
Like a child going to a parent, we don't have to clean up our spiritual act to pour out our hearts to God.
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.
What to Do When God Doesn’t Answer
We are called, as was Job, to begin our lives of discipleship with the fear of God and repentance from evil.
How to Resist the Vortex of the Course of This World
By definition, a Christian is one who has been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of his beloved Son (Col. 1:13).
Podcast: Why Did God Let Job Suffer? (Christopher Ash)
Christopher Ash discusses the story of Job and how God's goodness shines through suffering. He also explores the roles of Satan, the fall, and the cross of Jesus Christ in human suffering.
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 Study the Books of 1–2 Peter?
Into a historical moment when many Christians feel disoriented, 1–2 Peter helps us recenter our hope on Christ.
The Beauty of Shared Suffering
God delights in identifying with us in our suffering. He feels the sting in his chest when you hurt. He takes
it personally.
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.
How to Pray When You’re Feeling Anxious or Depressed
During seasons of depression or anxiety, most of us find it hard to concentrate, we feel God is far away, and we despair of God hearing us or helping us.
The church must be dedicated to hearing and attending to the cry of the afflicted. May all Christians resist the temptation to burrow our heads in the sand because we dread emotional upheaval.
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.
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.
Entering into the Loneliness of Job
There is a deep sense in which the lonely sufferings of Jesus Christ mean that no believer today is called to enter Job’s loneliness in its full depth.
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.
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.
A Narrative of Hope in the Darkness of Tragedy
The sovereignty of God is not some debatable proposition; it is the assurance that your child’s death is not a meaningless accident.
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.
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.
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.
Podcast: How to Endure Inexplicable Suffering (Eric Ortlund)
Eric Ortlund looks at the example of Job and how, as Christians, we should respond when we face the kind of suffering that Job did.
This gospel meditation by Paul David Tripp encourages us to turn to Christ in our hardships, taking even our most difficult moments to him.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
No one sets out to learn lament. But once you find it, you're so thankful because there's grace that God can give you when the dark clouds of hardship and pain roll into your life.
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.
3 Words of Counsel to Sufferers
Be aware that you're always preaching to yourself some kind of gospel.
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?
A Momentary Affliction in Light of Eternity
All Christians, especially those who are suffering, should be daydreaming about eternity on a regular basis.
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?
Spiritual warfare made the Puritans what they were. They accepted conflict as their calling, seeing themselves as their Lord’s soldier-pilgrims.
How Lament Can Help with Racial Reconciliation
When we don't know what to say, lament can become a really helpful language to use.
Three Purposes of God in Your Suffering
We know that suffering is a result of sin and a fallen world, but that usually feels inadequate when we're in anguish.
Sometimes we end up disappointed with Jesus because we want the miracle, the answer, the reconciliation, the restoration, the healing right now.
How the Bible Is One Big, Divine, Holy Story of Marriage
One of the amazing things about the Bible is the grand scope of its vision.
Why Restoration from Victimization Is Possible
God's Word is neither shy about topics of sexual victimization nor simplistic when it comes to solutions. Restoration is possible!
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.
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.
Talking about Heaven with a Grieving Person
What do you do when that’s the way everyone is talking about someone who has died, but you’re not sure that you ever saw any genuine relationship with Christ?
My Heart Cries Out: A 6-Day Devotional
Over the course of six days, watch videos and read Scripture and gospel meditations written by Paul David Tripp, adapted from My Heart Cries Out: Gospel Meditations for Everyday Life.
When Christ Turns Persecutors into Persecuted (for His Glory)
Jesus is alive, is at work, and he’s bringing men and women to himself.
Why You’ll Never Be Ready for All of Life’s Troubles
God may give me way more than I can handle—and I think that’s normal.
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.
The Paradoxical Pattern of Jesus’s Life
God is unswervingly active in bringing about good from troublesome circumstances in the Christian’s life.
Why We Can’t Lament without Listening
When it comes to loaded subjects like racism or ethnic tension, too often believers fall into the familiar ditches of denial or despair.
A Surprisingly Unhelpful Promise for a Hurting Friend
For many of us, asking for help goes against every fiber of our being.
Podcast: Paralysis, Heartache, and Hymns of Hope (Joni Eareckson Tada)
Joni Eareckson Tada talks about how she has wrestled with the truth of God’s sovereignty over her life through the years and how she hangs on to the hope of heaven each and every day.
Suffering is so real, so physical, so emotional, and so life-dominating that it’s hard to think of anything but the present moment of pain.
We Need Another Storyline to Put Ours in Perspective
Orienting ourselves by stories involves using their storylines to put our lives in proper perspective.
Learning to Endure Life's Troubles Like Jesus
Whatever trouble you are facing, there is somebody that you can relate to in the Bible.
Podcast: Surviving College with Your Faith Intact (Michael Kruger)
Michael Kruger discusses the top intellectual challenges to biblical Christianity many students will face on a secular campus.
Podcast: The Power of Habitual Gratitude (Sam Crabtree)
Sam Crabtree explains why gratitude is actually more foundational to the Christian life than you probably think and offers practical advice for cultivating gratitude in the ups and downs of our everyday lives,
Practically Caring for Others in the Midst of COVID
It behooves us all to reach out and stay connected with people who are working in the hospital right now.
Dave Furman's Story: Finding Help in Suffering
In this video, Dave Furman, author of Being There: How to Love Those Who Are Hurting, shares his story of debilitating need, resilient care, and finding the help that only God can supply.
Where is the hope in Psalm 88?
When Trouble Comes: Phil Ryken’s Personal Testimony
A year or two ago, Phil Ryken went through a season of deep spiritual discouragement; some would probably call it depression.
Trusting When We Don't Understand, Believing When We Can't See
The question that haunts most people who experience significant suffering and loss—is, “why?”
Why All Christians Should Expect Trouble
The longer you live in this fallen world, the more kinds of trouble you face.
What to Say to a Grieving Person
Sometimes it can be hard to know what to say to someone who is grieving. Yet there are helpful words we can give to people who are suffering—words that will actually help and encourage in the midst of grief.
Learning to Lament: A 5-Day Devotional
Explore how the psalms of lament and the book of Lamentations give voice to our pain and invite us to grieve, struggle, and tap into the rich reservoir of God's grace and mercy.
How Embracing Our Depravity Helps Us Suffer Well
Becoming bitter prevents healing, creates hardened hearts, and creates distance in our relationship with God.
Nancy Guthrie's Story of Hope in the Midst of Grief
When Nancy Guthrie's daughter, Hope, was born, she quickly learned that something was wrong. Doctors informed her and her husband, David, that all of the little things that weren't quite right with Hope were evidence …
How Parenting Kids with Special Needs Shifts Your Reality
In a sense, our story was really one of reconsidering every aspect of our lives.
The Wilderness Offers Us New Sight
When we walk through any season of wilderness, the greatest danger is not the scorching heat of the trial; it is that we would be blind to the God who sees us.
How We Can Best Pray for Our Hurting Friends
Rather than just telling people you're praying for them, pray aloud for them in their presence.
2 Principles for Formulating Advance Directives
There are two important things to think about when equipping those you love how to act on your behalf.
Help! My Teen Is Struggling with Anxiety
Go to God and ask him to lead you into more understanding of the various factors involved in your child’s suffering: physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, and social.
This gospel meditation by Paul David Tripp laments the effects of sin’s curse on the world.
4 Ways to Think about the Persecuted Church
The persecuted church often display joy that can be a powerful example to us that Christ is with his people.
Podcast: Why Are We Apathetic about What Really Matters? (Uche Anizor)
Uche Anizor discusses seven deadly causes of spiritual apathy that we should all be on the lookout for and how to take steps back toward God when we realize we’re not doing well.
Video: J.I. Packer on Weakness
J.I. Packer, renowned theologian and author of the forthcoming Weakness is the Way, reflects on his experience of weakness, having been hit by a bread truck as a child and now facing the realities of aging.
What someone shouldn’t immediately offer to the couple struggling with infertility is a set of solutions to the problem.
How to Respond to Hurtful Comments When You're Grieving
So you’re grieving and someone has said something to you that, instead of being helpful like they’d hoped it would be and like you would have wanted it to be, was actually hurtful. What are you going to do with that?
Podcast: The Unexpected Sorrows of Motherhood (Katie Faris)
Katie Faris talks about the love, joy, and heartache of motherhood and how moms can experience God's comfort and grace in the midst of it all.
How to Love Those Who Care for the Hurting
We recently ook a survey of almost 15,000 people on the topic of caring for those who are suffering. Here's what we found.
Blessed: Revelation’s Message to Persecuted Believers with Karen Ellis (Episode 9)
Nancy Guthrie talks with Karen Ellis about what it looks like for believers to patiently endure persecution.
Now we follow Jesus far from home, but one great and glorious day we shall follow Jesus home.
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.
An Interview with Ajith Fernando
Ajith Fernando discusses A Call to Joy & Pain.
Podcast: Positive Thinking ≠ Lasting Encouragement (Lindsey Carlson)
Lindsey Carlson talks about the discouragement we all face and where to turn for true encouragement that won’t let us down.
You Are in Constant Communication with the Lord
If you are a true believer in Jesus, you are in constant communication with your Lord in some way—either vocally or in your heart.
The Truth About Sexual Assault
Justin Holcomb shares some important statistics related to sexual assault in our country and around the world.
Podcast: Don't Despair, Jesus Can Rewrite Your Story (David Murray)
David Murray talks about why there’s more to our stories than what we can do or have done, and how, in Christ, our stories can become part of God’s story—a story full of hope, and beauty, and grace.
Podcast: Answering Common Questions about Mental Illness (David Murray)
David Murray responds to questions regarding anxiety, depression, and other forms of mental illness and also offers advice on differentiating between normal feelings of sadness and something more serious.
God's Purpose and Provision in Suffering
Nancy Guthrie is editor of Be Still My Soul: Embracing God's Purpose and Provision in Suffering. Included in this compilation are these thoughts from Jonathan Edwards, never more true or more needed than now.
What Can I Give to a Grieving Person?
What can we give as a gift to someone who is going through grief—something that we can do for them that would be really helpful?
1–2 Peter: A 10-Day Devotional Reading Plan
Over the course of 10 days, dig deeper into the books of 1–2 Peter and learn how God uses hope, humility, and holiness to prepare believers for their final home in heaven.
Podcast: A Christian Perspective on Depression (Kathryn Butler, MD)
Kathryn Butler shares encouraging insights that offer hope for those who struggle with depression and help for those seeking to care for someone who does.
Podcast: How to Lament after Two Years of Loss (Mark Vroegop)
Mark Vroegop considers what it looks like to lament the COVID-19 pandemic—and how that lament can help us heal, both individually and as churches.
Counsel for Pastors Intimidated by Counseling
The call to counsel can be a bit intimidating. But having wise conversations with God’s people is something he intends for us to do.
How to Comfort the Grieving: Click the “Like” Button
These days, people are more comfortable sharing grief online and are perhaps more comfortable receiving expressions of caring that way too.
Do You Have What It Takes to Wait Well for a Lifetime?
You feel that you simply don’t have what it takes to wait well for a lifetime. You know what? You don’t.
Should I "Like" a Social Media Post about Grief?
By liking a post about grief, you are letting the writer that they are not alone.
Advice for Those Helping the Hurting
The biggest piece of advice I have for caregivers is that it’s okay to grieve your loss in someone else’s pain.
Do Not be Paralyzed by Your Weaknesses
In honor of Reformation Day this week, here's a practical post about "gutsy guilt" in Martin Luther.
Video: Joe Thorn on the Most Difficult Season of His Life
Justin Taylor talks with author and pastor Joe Thorn about walking through difficult seasons and finding refuge in the triune God.
Q: If pain & evil exist, then how can your God be good?
Louis Markos answers the question: "If pain and evil exist, then how can your God be good?"
Learning to Love in the Midst of Suffering
Paul E. Miller discusses learning to love in the midst of suffering.
Podcast: Help! My Christian Life Is a Mess (Lewis & Sarah Allen)
Lewis and Sarah Allen talk about the painful trials and unexpected disappointments in our lives as Christians and what we should do when our faith feels weak or our walk with Christ feels like a mess.
Finding out your children have special needs is kind of like being given an orange.
What Those Who Care for the Hurting Need Most
This book is not for one who is necessarily suffering physical trauma or depression. Instead, it is a book for everyone.
Podcast: Are We in a Loneliness Epidemic? (Lydia Brownback)
Lydia Brownback talks about her experience of the pandemic and how Christians can rally together and support one another in the wake of two years of social isolation, masks, and lockdowns.
Hurtful Ways to “Help” the Hurting
No one wants another treatment, ointment, acupuncture reference or a diet that is 100% guaranteed to heal them.
The Cure to Our Frustration in Caring for the Hurting
Let's discuss the emotions we often feel when caring for the hurting.
Podcast: Don’t Waste Your Waiting (Mark Vroegop)
Mark Vroegop offers his thoughts on the difficult yet important question of what it looks like to wait well as a Christian.
Why I Wrote a Book about Helping the Hurting
While my physical pain and emotional stress is difficult, it doesn't just affect me—it affects all of the people around me.
What Is Hurtful about Playing the Comparison Game?
Unless you are Jesus, it almost never helps to tell someone that you know exactly what they’re going through.
Justin Taylor Interviews Nancy Guthrie on the Topic of Suffering
Justin Taylor Interview: Nancy Guthrie from Crossway on Vimeo.
Never Before Published Works from Lloyd-Jones
Martyn Lloyd-Jones shows how to deal with fear by confronting it, recognizing it, and realizing that the only way to address it is found in the unchanging gospel.
Practical Help for Times of Trouble
The things that have helped me in times of trouble are the ordinary things that God talks about in his Word.
Podcast: What Makes You Long for Heaven? (Cameron Cole)
Cameron Cole shares how God used the unexpected and tragic death of his firstborn son to dramatically shift his daily focus heavenward, revealing the joy-inducing power of an eternal mindset.
The Promise of Full Healing Here and Now: Kindness or Cruelty?
The day is coming when our God Who Heals will consummate his kingdom where there will be no more sickness.
Nancy Guthrie's Story of Hope in the Midst of Grief
When Nancy Guthrie's daughter, Hope, was born, she quickly learned that something was wrong. Doctors informed her and her husband, David, that all of the little things that weren't quite right with Hope were evidence …
Women in Crisis and the Gift of God’s Word
Please join us in prayer for the many partners of Crossway who are serving on the frontlines of ministry.
Learning to Understand the Real God
Nancy Guthries shares how Abraham Kuyper captures the modern mind-set and experience of doing battle with the God we've created in our own mind.
An Interview with Philip Ryken
Justin Taylor sits down with Philip Ryken to discuss his new book.
Podcast: How Does Jesus Really Feel about Me? (Dane Ortlund)
Dane Ortlund reflects on what God has continued to teach him about the heart of Jesus and why he's more passionate than ever about this life-changing message.
Video: Collin Hansen on Identifying Our Blind Spots
Justin Taylor talks with author Collin Hansen about how Christians can view their differences as opportunities to more effectively engage a needy world with the love of Christ.
Nancy Guthrie's Story of Hope in the Midst of Grief
When Nancy Guthrie's daughter, Hope, was born, she quickly learned that something was wrong. Doctors informed her and her husband, David, that all of the little things that weren't quite right with Hope were evidence …
Just because we assent to the truth that God is our rock does not mean we fully believe that truth.
Video: Disability and the Gospel
"Why do we in the evangelical church in the West demand that everyone be “normal” and look the same? Why do we as a culture try so hard (and succeed so well!) at hiding people …
Paul David Tripp's "A Shelter in the Time of Storm"
Check out this video clip with Paul Tripp about his new book, A Shelter in the Time of Storm.