Surviving Life’s Worst Moments

2 Corinthians 1:8-11 (NIV)

How To Get Through What You Go Through

SHOCK: When your world falls apart. 

“Two people are better than one. They can help each other in everything they do. Suppose either of them falls down. Then the one can help the other one up. But suppose a person falls down and doesn’t have anyone to help them up. Then feel sorry for that person!” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NIRV)

SORROW: When your heart is breaking. 

“[Jesus] was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” Isaiah 53:3 (KJV)

“For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. 

Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us!”  2 Corinthians 5:21 (TLB)

“Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also.” Psalm 31:9 (NIV)

“God, hear my cry for help. Listen to my prayer. From a faraway land I call to you for help. I feel so weak and helpless…”  Psalm 61:1-2 (ERV)

STRUGGLE: When you don’t understand. 

“Why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow, to end my life in disgrace?” Jeremiah 20:18 (GNT)

“My God, my God, why did you abandon me?”  Matthew 27:46 (GNT)

“These were the true heroes, commended for their faith, yet they lived in hope without receiving the fullness of what was promised them.” Hebrews 11:39 (TPT)

“Do not let your hearts be troubled…I am going to prepare a place for you.” John 14:1-2 (NIV)

“As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.” Jeremiah 29:10-11 (MSG)

SURRENDER: How to experience peace. 

“Lord, it is so much better to trust in you to save me than to put my confidence in someone else.” Psalm 118:8-9 (TPT)

“My gift to you is Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.” John 14:27 (MSG)

SANCTIFICATION: How God turns bad to good. 

“My friends, be glad, even if you have a lot of trouble. You know you learn to endure by having your faith tested. But you must learn to endure everything, so you will be completely mature and not lacking in anything.” James 1:2-4 (CEV)

SERVICE: How to use your pain for good. 

“God is the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us… But in our trouble God has comforted us—and this, too, to help you: to show you from our personal experience how God will tenderly comfort you when you undergo these same sufferings. He will give you the strength to endure.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (TLB)