Reply All: How Do I Survive Life’s Worse Moments

2 Corinthians 1:8 NIV
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the
troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great
pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.

2 Corinthians 1:9 NIV
Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened
that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

2 Corinthians 1:10 NIV
He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again.
On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,

2 Corinthians 1:11 NIV
as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf
for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
Six Stages for Surviving Life’s Worst Moments:

1. .

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 NIV
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If
either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who
falls and has no one to help them up.

2. .

Isaiah 53:3 NV
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar
with pain.

Psalm 61:1-2 NKJV
Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will
cry to You. When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is
higher than I.

3. .

Matthew 27:46 NIV
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Hebrews 11:35b, 37b-38 NIV
There were others who were tortured… persecuted and mistreated— the
world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains,
living in caves and in holes in the ground.

Hebrews 11:39-40 NIV
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what
had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that
only together with us would they be made perfect.

4. .

Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own
understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths
straight.

5. .

Romans 5:3-4 The Message
We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles,
because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and
how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us
alert for whatever God will do next.

1 Peter 1:6 NLT
So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to
endure many trials for a little while.

1 Peter 1:7 NLT
These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire
tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere
gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring
you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is
revealed to the whole world.

6. .

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles,
so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves
receive from God.

2 Corinthians 1:5-6 NIV
For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our
comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort
and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in
you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.

2 Corinthians 1:7 NIV
And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our
sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

I can’t control what happens to me, but with God’s help, I can choose
my response.