Facing Difficulties

As you seek to discern how to find meaning, strength, and growth when trials come, these seven basic questions can be a helpful tool for you. By asking questions and seeking wisdom and guidance from God, you can discover purpose as you recognize the transforming work of Christ, even in the midst of suffering.

Endurance is associated with the physical stamina required for a race. However, the character quality of endurance is much deeper than physical stamina. It includes the strength that comes by rejoicing in the reproaches that come as we follow the ways of God.

A key to forgiving your offenders is realizing that God can work through your suffering to accomplish His purposes in your life. This understanding enabled many people in Scripture to forgive their offenders.

What do we do when someone hurts us deeply? What happens when we hold bitterness toward others? Affirming Biblical Foundations (ABF) is a ten-part, interactive workshop where participants walk through common conflicts we often face, whether in the family, the church, the work place, or the civil arena.

God wants each believer to grow in his knowledge of Him and in his understanding of His ways. He will use situations and circumstances to reveal His love for us and our need for Him. God will use disappointments, hindrances, and what seem to be “dead ends” or hopeless situations in life to motivate us to look to Him for His strength and timing for fulfilling a vision. As we wait on Him, God often works in ways that we never would have expected.

When someone offends you, your response can lead to the bondage of bitterness or the freedom of forgiveness. You might be surprised by the far-reaching results of your attitudes and actions!

The greatest example of one laying down his life for his friends is Christ. We will never be able to fully comprehend the spiritual aspect of Christ’s suffering and shame, but medical studies shed glimpses of light on the physical agony and all the horror that Jesus endured on the cross.

In one terrible day, Job was stripped of every outward manifestation of God’s goodness. As we meet Job in the Bible, God calls him “the greatest of all the men […]

The first petition of “The Lord’s Prayer” shows us the high regard in which our Lord Jesus held the name of His Father. When the disciples came to Jesus asking […]

On a cold, miserable day, a French warship steadily made its way along the Scottish coastline. The warship was powered by human labor — the steady pull of many chained galley slaves. Aboard the ship, performing backbreaking work at the oars, was a feeble man who was very near the point of death. It had been many months since the Scotsman had seen his native land.

If Joseph asked you why God allowed him to be sold into slavery by his own brothers; to be torn from his family and home; to be falsely accused by the wife of his Egyptian master, to whom he had been loyal and devoted; and to be unjustly imprisoned and ignored, how might you answer?

Seven-year-old William Bradford stood over the grave of his mother in the little village of Austerfield in the hills of Yorkshire, England. Having previously lost his father when he was a baby, young William was now alone in the world. Few would have supposed that this orphaned boy would amount to anything.

The moon shone through the curtains in the New York home. The moonlight revealed the middle-aged lady’s face, grimacing from pain. Lydia Baxter was an invalid and had spent most […]

White waves churned from under the large boat as it sailed across the large lake in Sweden, on its way to the city of Gothenburg. Standing at the rail of […]

The poor, ill woman had seen many afflictions. The pastor, Elisha Hoffman, was known for his compassion for the destitute and those literally from the poorer side of town. As […]

A brilliant student, Eliza Hewitt was the class valedictorian when she graduated from Girls’ Normal School in Philadelphia. Her high school trained young ladies to become teachers upon graduation. Thus, […]

The year was 1637. Almost twenty years of the brutal Thirty Years’ War in Europe had been fought. In the walled German city of Eilenberg, a group of starving citizens […]

The drenched, terror-filled sailor clutched the helm. As another angry billow crashed against the ship, the entire vessel shuddered violently and then dropped into the hollow of the next giant […]

The Confederate cannons boomed, hurling heavy ammunition that exploded in thudding, fiery, noisy bursts. The Civil War battle of Allatoona Pass, Georgia, was brutal. Union soldiers despaired inside the fort […]

The small family stood tearfully beside the little grave. Pastor George Prentiss and his wife, Elizabeth, were grief-stricken. They had just buried one of their young children. Mrs. Prentiss’s heart […]