Hold On: Verses for When you are Saddened by Loss or are Facing Pain and Suffering

March 16, 2019 354 0 0

brown and white bear plush toy 42230 - Philippine Bible Society

The Resurrection Body

Someone will ask, “How can the dead be raised to life? What kind of body will they have?” You fool! When you plant a seed in the ground, it does not sprout to life unless it dies. And what you plant is a bare seed, perhaps a grain of wheat or some other grain, not the full-bodied plant that will later grow up. God provides that seed with the body he wishes; he gives each seed its own proper body.

1 Corinthians 15:35-38 Good News Translation (GNT)

Listen to this secret truth: we shall not all die, but when the last trumpet sounds, we shall all be changed in an instant, as quickly as the blinking of an eye. For when the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised, never to die again, and we shall all be changed. For what is mortal must be changed into what is immortal; what will die must be changed into what cannot die. So when this takes place, and the mortal has been changed into the immortal, then the scripture will come true: “Death is destroyed; victory is complete!”

“Where, Death, is your victory?
Where, Death, is your power to hurt?”

Death gets its power to hurt from sin, and sin gets its power from the Law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

1 Corinthians 15:51-57 Good News Translation (GNT)

The Sermon on the Mount

5 Jesus saw the crowds and went up a hill, where he sat down. His disciples gathered around him, ²and he began to teach them:

True Happiness

³“Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor;
    the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!
⁴“Happy are those who mourn;
    God will comfort them!
⁵“Happy are those who are humble;
    they will receive what God has promised!
⁶“Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires;
    God will satisfy them fully!
⁷“Happy are those who are merciful to others;
    God will be merciful to them!
⁸“Happy are the pure in heart;
    they will see God!
⁹“Happy are those who work for peace;
    God will call them his children!
¹⁰“Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires;
    the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!

Matthew 5:1-10 Good News Translation (GNT)

But to keep me from being puffed up with pride because of the many wonderful things I saw, I was given a painful physical ailment, which acts as Satan’s messenger to beat me and keep me from being proud. Three times I prayed to the Lord about this and asked him to take it away. But his answer was: “My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are weak.” I am most happy, then, to be proud of my weaknesses, in order to feel the protection of Christ’s power over me. I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Good News Translation (GNT)

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a place of safety in times of trouble.

Those who know you, Lord, will trust you;
you do not abandon anyone who comes to you.

Sing praise to the Lord, who rules in Zion!
    Tell every nation what he has done!
God remembers those who suffer;
    he does not forget their cry,
    and he punishes those who wrong them.

Psalm 9:9-12 Good News Translation (GNT)

14 “Do not be worried and upset,” Jesus told them. “Believe^[^a^] in God and believe also in me. ²There are many rooms in my Father’s house, and I am going to prepare a place for you. I would not tell you this if it were not so.^[^b^] ³And after I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to myself, so that you will be where I am. ⁴You know the way that leads to the place where I am going.”

⁵Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; so how can we know the way to get there?”

⁶Jesus answered him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me. ⁷Now that you have known me,” he said to them, “you will know^[^c^] my Father also, and from now on you do know him and you have seen him.”

John 14:1-7 Good News Translation (GNT)

God’s Love in Christ Jesus

In view of all this, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us? Certainly not God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all! He gave us his Son—will he not also freely give us all things? Who will accuse God’s chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty! Who, then, will condemn them? Not Christ Jesus, who died, or rather, who was raised to life and is at the right side of God, pleading with him for us! Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death? As the scripture says,

“For your sake we are in danger of death at all times;
we are treated like sheep that are going to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below—there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31-39 Good News Translation (GNT)