How should I respond when trouble comes?
Nehemiah 9:32“And now, our God, the great and mighty and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of unfailing love, do not let all the hardships we have suffered seem insignificant to you. Great trouble has come upon us and upon our kings and leaders and priests and prophets and ancestors—all of your people—from the days when the kings of Assyria first triumphed over us until now.”
Psalm 4:1Answer me when I call to you, O God who declares me innocent. Free me from my troubles. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer.
Psalm 18:4-6The ropes of death entangled me; floods of destruction swept over me. The grave wrapped its ropes around me; death laid a trap in my path. But in my distress I cried out to the Lord; yes, I prayed to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry to him reached his ears.
Psalm 55:1-2Listen to my prayer, O God. Do not ignore my cry for help! Please listen and answer me, for I am overwhelmed by my troubles.
Psalm 57:1Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy! I look to you for protection. I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by.
Psalm 120:1I took my troubles to the Lord; I cried out to him, and he answered my prayer.
Psalm 138:7Though I am surrounded by troubles, you will protect me from the anger of my enemies. You reach out your hand, and the power of your right hand saves me.
Psalm 142:2I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles.
Isaiah 37:14-20After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord’s Temple and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord: “O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God. It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all—only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands. Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God.”
Jeremiah 16:19Lord, you are my strength and fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble!
Jonah 2:1-7Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. He said, “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me! You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves. Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have driven me from your presence. Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’ I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head. I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death! As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord. And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple.”
John 14:27“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”
Romans 12:12Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.
1 Peter 5:7Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
We should go immediately to God—with honesty and faith. He promises to listen to us and act on our behalf—not always to take our troubles away, but to help us grow from them and give us peace, and even joy.
Psalm 119:143As pressure and stress bear down on me, I find joy in your commands.
Matthew 13:21“But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word.”
We should strengthen our roots by reading and thinking about God’s Word. It is a source of comfort, joy, guidance, and nourishment.
Matthew 6:34“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
We should not give in to worry. Borrowing trouble from tomorrow through worry can deplete us physically, spiritually, and emotionally.
Psalm 25:16-18Turn to me and have mercy, for I am alone and in deep distress. My problems go from bad to worse. Oh, save me from them all! Feel my pain and see my trouble. Forgive all my sins.
When trouble strikes, we should search our hearts to see if the problem might be a result of our own wrongdoing. If it is, we should ask God’s help us deal with it. God sometimes uses our troubles to draw us back to him.
Job 1:20-22Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. He said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!” In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.
Job 2:10Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.
Ezekiel 18:25, 29“Yet you say, ‘The Lord isn’t doing what’s right!’ Listen to me, O people of Israel. Am I the one not doing what’s right, or is it you? . . . And yet the people of Israel keep saying, ‘The Lord isn’t doing what’s right!’ O people of Israel, it is you who are not doing what’s right, not I.”
We should not blame God for our troubles; rather, we should accept them as an opportunity for growth.
Genesis 3:12-13The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
Genesis 16:5Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The Lord will show who’s wrong—you or me!”
We should not blame others, especially for problems that we had a part in or that we complicated further by our actions.
Romans 12:15Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.
1 Corinthians 12:26If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
Galatians 6:2Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.
Hebrews 13:3Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.
We should seek strength and support from other Christians. Sharing our burdens with each other lightens the load.
Psalm 119:157Many persecute and trouble me, yet I have not swerved from your laws.
Ecclesiastes 8:5-6Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right, for there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble.
Jeremiah 42:13-17“But if you refuse to obey the Lord your God, and if you say, ‘We will not stay here; instead, we will go to Egypt where we will be free from war, the call to arms, and hunger,’ then hear the Lord’s message to the remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and live there, the very war and famine you fear will catch up to you, and you will die there. That is the fate awaiting every one of you who insists on going to live in Egypt. Yes, you will die from war, famine, and disease. None of you will escape the disaster I will bring upon you there.’”
Daniel 3:16-18Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”
Acts 4:16-20“What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.” So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”
Acts 20:18-27When they arrived he [the apostle Paul] declared, “You know that from the day I set foot in the province of Asia until now I have done the Lord’s work humbly and with many tears. I have endured the trials that came to me from the plots of the Jews. I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes. I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike—the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus. And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.”
2 Corinthians 1:8-10We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us.
We should remain committed to doing what is right and stand firm in obedience. Being obedient to God is one thing we can control when enduring troubled times. Sometimes we might think running away from trouble will make it go away, but some kinds of trouble will follow us wherever we go. The best course of action is usually to stay and work through it with God’s help and guidance. Peter and John stood firm and trusted God to save them, following the example of the Old Testament saints before them. Paul did not fear trouble, but he feared disobeying God’s call. They all knew that a weak-hearted, faithless response to trouble only leads to more trouble.
2 Corinthians 4:7-8, 14-17We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. . . . We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
Revelation 2:9-11“I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich! . . . Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you. You will suffer for ten days. But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life. Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. Whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second death.”
We should take an eternal perspective and endure.
