Needing advice on how to better endure suffering

[DRDS]

Hey everyone, I'm needing some ideas on how to endure hard times and suffering much better than what I have been able to. From your experience, how do you endure the trials, hard times, and persecution that you sometimes face? If you never or hardly complain or get angry with God and with other people, please tell me, how do you do it? I'm quite serious about this, because I know very soon I'm going to be headed for some serious bad times in my life specifically and I want to be able to endure them much like how the apostles and other early church followers were able to endure them, but I don't know how. I mean, I trust God, but many times, if not, most of the time I don't trust myself.

Also from what you have seen, does God help us, comfort us, and reward us for enduring hard times even if the reason is not necessarily because of our faith? Because I know He would if the reason for hardships are brought on by say, a communist dictator or by a group of angry muslims specifically because of your faith, but what about for the normal or not so normal calamities that people go though, would He also help us every bit as much with those? But anyways, thank you all for your time. GB.

[1over137]

I had some nice collection of Bible verses but it got deleted so I will do the collection again and post it here.

When I went through suffering and trials many times I stayed silent and let people spoke whatever they spoke however hard it was to listen to it. They were not in a state able to listen to me, so it was pointless to try to say something. Many times when alone I was crying deeply.

I do not know what kind of suffering you go through, but try to stay calm, try to think on God, focus on him. For that my next post with verses hopefully coming soon.

[DRDS]

Well it's not that I"m going through major suffering right now, the thing is, if things don't majorly change for me real soon things have the potential to get catastrophic for me. And if they do get that way I need to know the proper way to react and handle them. I mean, how did Job handle his situation when his whole entire world came crashing down?

How did the apostles deal with the daily suffering and the kind of deaths that they went through? Even so today, how do believers in muslim nations under muslim persecution or members of the underground church in China deal with the kinds of things they deal with on a daily basis? What I'm trying to say is where do I get the testicular fortitude that these people had or currently have depending on the time period in which they lived or are currently living in.

And if you all are under persecution and or hard times how do you specifically deal with the experience? That's what I'm trying to figure out so I can try to put their methods into practice myself once I find myself in similar situations.

[RickD]

Hi DRDS.

DRDS wrote:
From your experience, how do you endure the trials, hard times, and persecution that you sometimes face?

That would depend on what kind of trial. Is it a trial that was brought about by a poor decision I made? Then I'd learn from that, and try to make better decisions.

If you never or hardly complain or get angry with God and with other people, please tell me, how do you do it?

I get angry with other people sometimes. And I get angry with myself too. If I do something stupid, I get mad at myself, and try my best to learn from my own stupidity. I've learned the hard way from my mistakes too many times.

I'm quite serious about this, because I know very soon I'm going to be headed for some serious bad times in my life specifically and I want to be able to endure them much like how the apostles and other early church followers were able to endure them, but I don't know how. I mean, I trust God, but many times, if not, most of the time I don't trust myself.

Do you want to be more specific about what you think you're headed for?

Also from what you have seen, does God help us, comfort us, and reward us for enduring hard times even if the reason is not necessarily because of our faith?

He definitely comforts me. But, much of the hard times I've endured, were brought about by my own errors. Growing and maturing certainly helped me.

Because I know He would if the reason for hardships are brought on by say, a communist dictator or by a group of angry muslims specifically because of your faith, but what about for the normal or not so normal calamities that people go though, would He also help us every bit as much with those? But anyways, thank you all for your time. GB.

I think you may need to be more specific, if you want a good answer.

I guarantee you that there's someone here that has gone through something similar to what you're going through. And most of us are more than happy to give you advice from our experiences.

[B. W.]

Drds,

How long have you been on this forum? For awhile now. I have seen you hold you own here and you do quite well. I admired how you carried yourself and have learned from you as well too, Thank you. You have also have not denied the faith as evidenced here, and you have helped may readers in many different ways in how you stood up for Christ. I admire your pluck.

So let me ask you a question: how did you do that here midst some of the flak you stood against?

Here is but one example of your pluck and style:

I just don't know what to say Seraph, you almost seem to me to be doing your best to find an excuse to reject God. You spend so much time and effort trying to show us the the multiverse has merit. Come on! Currently there is NO hard evidence for the multiverse. And quite honestly, I don't think there ever will be any hard evidence for it. The multiverse is simply a last ditch effort for atheists to explain away the fine tuning and to give a natural hypothesis to what caused our universe. The fact that you by pass all the good resources and advice that all the others here have given you seems to say to me that you HOPE that atheist scientists will find evidence for the multiverse because you HOPE that the multiverse is true. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid I could be right.

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[1over137]

Here are some words from God:

Verses on suffering

Romans 5:3-5 ESV

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

James 1:2-4 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Romans 8:18 ESV

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

1 Peter 4:12-19 ESV

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

Isaiah 43:2 ESV

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

1 Peter 5:9-10

But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

[DRDS]

Hi DRDS.

DRDS wrote:
From your experience, how do you endure the trials, hard times, and persecution that you sometimes face?

That would depend on what kind of trial. Is it a trial that was brought about by a poor decision I made? Then I'd learn from that, and try to make better decisions.

If you never or hardly complain or get angry with God and with other people, please tell me, how do you do it?

I get angry with other people sometimes. And I get angry with myself too. If I do something stupid, I get mad at myself, and try my best to learn from my own stupidity. I've learned the hard way from my mistakes too many times.

I'm quite serious about this, because I know very soon I'm going to be headed for some serious bad times in my life specifically and I want to be able to endure them much like how the apostles and other early church followers were able to endure them, but I don't know how. I mean, I trust God, but many times, if not, most of the time I don't trust myself.

Do you want to be more specific about what you think you're headed for?

Also from what you have seen, does God help us, comfort us, and reward us for enduring hard times even if the reason is not necessarily because of our faith?

He definitely comforts me. But, much of the hard times I've endured, were brought about by my own errors. Growing and maturing certainly helped me.

Because I know He would if the reason for hardships are brought on by say, a communist dictator or by a group of angry muslims specifically because of your faith, but what about for the normal or not so normal calamities that people go though, would He also help us every bit as much with those? But anyways, thank you all for your time. GB.

I think you may need to be more specific, if you want a good answer.

I guarantee you that there's someone here that has gone through something similar to what you're going through. And most of us are more than happy to give you advice from our experiences.

Ah, I don't want to be too specific as of yet as far as what I think I'm headed for, because again, in reality it may or may not happen, but I have a strong feeling it may happen. What it involves in a nutshell is me dying alone of starvation while my family and all the fat happy townspeople sit back and laugh and sneer at what a evil unrighteous person I am.

And it's not that I'm a bad person, if you factor in the kind of time period we are all in, the geographical location I'm in, the kind of people I'm around, and the kind of circumstances i'm dealing with then you and everyone else might understand better.

But again, it's a little too personal so that's all I want to go into as far as detail. But if this worse case scenario does indeed take place, how will I keep my faith in God or at the very least, how will I still believe that God is still on my side?

[DRDS]

Drds,

How long have you been on this forum? For awhile now. I have seen you hold you own here and you do quite well. I admired how you carried yourself and have learned from you as well too, Thank you. You have also have not denied the faith as evidenced here, and you have helped may readers in many different ways in how you stood up for Christ. I admire your pluck.

So let me ask you a question: how did you do that here midst some of the flak you stood against?

Here is but one example of your pluck and style:

I just don't know what to say Seraph, you almost seem to me to be doing your best to find an excuse to reject God. You spend so much time and effort trying to show us the the multiverse has merit. Come on! Currently there is NO hard evidence for the multiverse. And quite honestly, I don't think there ever will be any hard evidence for it. The multiverse is simply a last ditch effort for atheists to explain away the fine tuning and to give a natural hypothesis to what caused our universe. The fact that you by pass all the good resources and advice that all the others here have given you seems to say to me that you HOPE that atheist scientists will find evidence for the multiverse because you HOPE that the multiverse is true. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid I could be right.

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Thank you so much for the compliment BW, that really was a big encouragement for me when I read it last night. I guess to answer your question I'm just very passionate on some of my views and sometimes I can have a way in expressing them. The only bad thing is, the internet world and the "real" world are too different things. Sadly to be very honest, I'm not as big and bad in real life as I can sometimes be in the internet world. Where as the people in my area can easily lift boulders and trees and they love to brawl and act like thugs. And they turn abound and say that they are very righteous and if I'm not like them in every way and have everything that they have than I'm not a genuine believer and I should be put to death or have something even worse done to me. So in a nutshell that's the kind of crowd I'm dealing with or am going to have to deal with eventually.

[DRDS]

Here are some words from God:

Verses on suffering

Romans 5:3-5 ESV

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

James 1:2-4 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Romans 8:18 ESV

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

1 Peter 4:12-19 ESV

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

Isaiah 43:2 ESV

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

1 Peter 5:9-10

But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

Thank you so much. These verses are indeed very good, but I need to find a way to change my thinking habits and my habits as far as how I react to certain situations. Another thing that verses like these don't help well at is when people around you who all claim to be believers view you as a unbeliever because you are not 100% just like them in every sort of way. And the fact they love to use the Bible and God and the church as weapons against you.

And quite honestly they also love to do that to each other as well, but it hurts especially, when they do it to me. It's seems like in my area they all want everyone the same in every way. They want everyone to be big, tough, strong, dumb, hateful, short tempered thug ogers who have the typical angry vengeful God, bible thumping, screaming, yelling, and dumb version or flavor of Christianity and when they see anyone with even the slightest difference they want to burn them at the stake so to speak. So all in all, in one form or another that's some of the stuff I'm dealing with. But anyways, keep my in your thoughts and prayers that I'll somehow get my life squared away so I can finally even have a decent chance of earning the "respect" of these locals.

[1over137]

That must be very difficult to live with those people around.

Have you tried to show them bible verses speaking about us to behave with love, patience, understanding, tenderness...
Only God can confront them or His word.

But it must be very hard. You are alone, starving...

Can we help somehow else not just speaking encouragement?

Are you member of some church you can get support?

[DRDS]

Like I said earlier, I'm not yet in that situation yet, but if things keep going the way they are maybe within two to three years I might be in such a scenario. If I can find some additional work maybe things will pan out. But as far as dealing with the people in my area, they love to mix politics with religion and they love to act very tough, mean and hateful so I mainly keep my distance from them, but sooner or later I'll have to deal with them. But again, just keep me in your prayers that things will work out in the best way possible. Thank you so much for your time.

[B. W.]

Like I said earlier, I'm not yet in that situation yet, but if things keep going the way they are maybe within two to three years I might be in such a scenario. If I can find some additional work maybe things will pan out. But as far as dealing with the people in my area, they love to mix politics with religion and they love to act very tough, mean and hateful so I mainly keep my distance from them, but sooner or later I'll have to deal with them. But again, just keep me in your prayers that things will work out in the best way possible. Thank you so much for your time.

The area where you live. How is the coal industry there?

I know how it is in SW VA - not good and that cranks people's political views. Mucho folks out of work...

Just remember that here on this forum, you have proven that you do hold your own; therefore, what is the Lord trying to tell you about where you live?
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[DRDS]

In my area specifically, why don't have many coal mines. I know further east there are still some but I guess in those areas it's not too good. No, one there are not too many jobs period in my area right now. And the ones that I could get if I had to are not only very tough to do, you have to work with a bunch of thugs, and I tried doing it back in 2012 and I got treated like garbage. I mean, I was being bullied by them like it was junior high. And the people there loved to pick brawls with each other and they also dealt drugs in the parking lot.

And another thing that is not working in my favor is far as getting noticed is the fact that because I'm a entrepreneur and have owned a part time photography business for about ten years now, other regular business don't want to hire someone unless they have worked for other mainline legitimate businesses. Which means they won't even give entrepreneurs a slight glace much less a job interview.

So overall, in many ways I've been fortunate in my life. I've got to own a business and do a lot of very cool things that most people don't get to do. But on the flip side I don't have a lot of things going for me that most other normal people have, and from the way things look if they don't change soon I might be shut out of such things (like having a family, a home of my own, a steady job or even a job) for the rest of my life. Not only that, I don't think I'll ever earn the respect of anyone in my area if things remain as they are. But even if they change for the better, with the kind of folks I'm around, I may never have their respect.

And as far as God telling me things about the area I live in. I don't know. Again, unfortunately God doesn't talk directly to me at all. If He did, then surely I would be in a much better situation than I'm currently in. I'm just drawing on personal experience and common sense right now. And from what I see in my area, it used to be a very nice and pleasant place to live but it's surely and not so slowly getting worse and worse. But with the way people think in my area right now.

They don't really believe in helping the poor, they think that's communism, they think if you can't lift boulders and trees with your bare hands and give another "good man" a "good man's beating" than you deserve to be left out in the cold and die. And they think by believing and teaching this, they are being super spiritual, but I think they have turned into modern day super pharisees. And they despise anyone with even the slightest difference in theology (not just talking essentials I'm talking the slightest stuff like how long a man's hair should be) and they certainly don't like apologetics, they think a good man's rock hard fist to another good man's face is adequate enough for reproof!

So yeah, you either have the super Pharisee types in my area or you have the drug dealing overly violent thugs. And both are many times equally as bad, because neither will help anyone and both are always ready to brawl at the drop of a hat or a spit across someone's hand. So in conclusion I hoped that help clarify some things for you. Again thank you for your concern and for your thoughts and prayers. GB B.W.

[B. W.]

In my area specifically, why don't have many coal mines. I know further east there are still some but I guess in those areas it's not too good. No, one there are not too many jobs period in my area right now. And the ones that I could get if I had to are not only very tough to do, you have to work with a bunch of thugs, and I tried doing it back in 2012 and I got treated like garbage. I mean, I was being bullied by them like it was junior high. And the people there loved to pick brawls with each other and they also dealt drugs in the parking lot.

And another thing that is not working in my favor is far as getting noticed is the fact that because I'm a entrepreneur and have owned a part time photography business for about ten years now, other regular business don't want to hire someone unless they have worked for other mainline legitimate businesses. Which means they won't even give entrepreneurs a slight glace much less a job interview.

So overall, in many ways I've been fortunate in my life. I've got to own a business and do a lot of very cool things that most people don't get to do. But on the flip side I don't have a lot of things going for me that most other normal people have, and from the way things look if they don't change soon I might be shut out of such things (like having a family, a home of my own, a steady job or even a job) for the rest of my life. Not only that, I don't think I'll ever earn the respect of anyone in my area if things remain as they are. But even if they change for the better, with the kind of folks I'm around, I may never have their respect.

And as far as God telling me things about the area I live in. I don't know. Again, unfortunately God doesn't talk directly to me at all. If He did, then surely I would be in a much better situation than I'm currently in. I'm just drawing on personal experience and common sense right now. And from what I see in my area, it used to be a very nice and pleasant place to live but it's surely and not so slowly getting worse and worse. But with the way people think in my area right now.

They don't really believe in helping the poor, they think that's communism, they think if you can't lift boulders and trees with your bare hands and give another "good man" a "good man's beating" than you deserve to be left out in the cold and die. And they think by believing and teaching this, they are being super spiritual, but I think they have turned into modern day super pharisees. And they despise anyone with even the slightest difference in theology (not just talking essentials I'm talking the slightest stuff like how long a man's hair should be) and they certainly don't like apologetics, they think a good man's rock hard fist to another good man's face is adequate enough for reproof!

So yeah, you either have the super Pharisee types in my area or you have the drug dealing overly violent thugs. And both are many times equally as bad, because neither will help anyone and both are always ready to brawl at the drop of a hat or a spit across someone's hand. So in conclusion I hoped that help clarify some things for you. Again thank you for your concern and for your thoughts and prayers. GB B.W.

I know the types... the pharisees - good description...

Have you thought about moving like to Wise VA or Ashville NC or Johnson City? Might be a bit better...
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[DRDS]

If I had the resources and the opportunity I would. But currently I help look after my dad's mother and most of my family lives in this area, so it would be bad if I left all of them. But mainly I'm just hoping I can find some additional work soon and if and when opportunities come about I would later consider moving elsewhere. But it is what it is currently.