19 Bible verses about life struggles for getting through what has not ended
Written by Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt · Reviewed by Raphael Navarro Schmitt ·
Short answer
The Bible does not promise a life without difficulty. John 16:33 warns that there will be trouble in the world and only then says to have confidence, and 2 Corinthians 4:8 describes people enduring tribulation in all things yet not in anguish. The verses below are for crossing what has not ended.
There is a difference between a bad day and a bad season. This page is for the second kind: the case that drags on, the treatment that does not finish, the account that has not balanced in months, the house where nobody is well.
Scripture has its own way of talking about this, and it disappoints anyone hunting for a line that settles the matter. Paul says he endures tribulation in all things and, in the same breath, that he is not in anguish — both halves stay. Job says he looked for God in all four directions and found him in none, and only then says that God knows his way.
A warning about three verses that almost always arrive too early. "All things work together unto good", "consider everything a joy" and "God will not give you more than you can bear" are real texts, and not one of them says what popular use suggests. They are on the list, with their context beside them.
The order runs from recognition to crossing. If you are at the start of something hard, the first items will serve you better than the last.
All 19 verses, one by one
These things I have spoken to you, so that you may have peace in me. In the world, you will have difficulties. But have confidence: I have overcome the world.”
The sentence has three parts and the middle one usually vanishes from the quotation: in the world you will have difficulties. Jesus says it hours before his arrest, and the confidence he asks for comes after the warning, not instead of it.
Read the chapter8In all things, we endure tribulation, yet we are not in anguish. We are constrained, yet we are not destitute.
9We suffer persecution, yet we have not been abandoned. We are thrown down, yet we do not perish.
Four pairs, always the same shape: it happens, and it does not finish us. Paul denies none of the first four words — he simply refuses to end each sentence the way it is asking to be ended.
Read the chapter1A Canticle in steps. From the depths, I have cried out to you, O Lord.
2O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
Numbered 129 here and 130 in Bibles that follow the Hebrew count. The psalm starts at the bottom, with no polite introduction. It works as a model for anyone who can no longer assemble an organised request — crying out from the depths is already the whole prayer.
Read the chapter2O God, pay attention to my supplication. Be attentive to my prayer.
3I cried out to you from the ends of the earth. When my heart was in anguish, you exalted me on a rock. You have led me,
Note the tense in this edition: he was already lifted onto the rock, from the ends of the earth, with his heart in anguish. The rescue is reported as something done, and the prayer around it is still going on — which is roughly the position of anyone reading this page.
Read the chapter8If I go to the east, he does not appear; if I go to the west, I will not understand him.
9If I turn to the left, what can I do? I will not take hold of him. If I turn myself to the right, I will not see him.
10Truly, he knows my way and has tested me like gold that passes through fire.
Job searches east, west, left and right and finds God in none of them. Only after that does he say God knows his way and has already tested him. The order is what matters: the absence is felt before the trust is declared.
Read the chapterHe said to her, “You have spoken like one of the foolish wives. If we accepted good things from the hand of God, why should we not accept bad things?” In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.
The question Job puts to his wife is hard, and he does not sustain it for long — the chapters that follow are open lament. Having said it in the first moment does not oblige him to repeat it later.
Read the chapterMany are the afflictions of the just, but from them all the Lord will free them.
The first half is the one that rarely makes it onto a graphic: many are the afflictions of the just. The psalm counts on the accumulation, and that is exactly what makes the second half worth believing.
Read the chapter2Will my soul not be subject to God? For from him is my salvation.
3Yes, he himself is my God and my salvation. He is my supporter; I will be moved no more.
This edition opens it as a question — will my soul not be subject to God? — and answers it in the next line. Which is more useful than a flat statement: the psalm argues itself into the position rather than starting there.
Read the chapterIf I wander into the midst of tribulation, you will revive me. For you extended your hand against the wrath of my enemies. And your right hand has accomplished my salvation.
The preposition is into the midst of tribulation, not after it. And the verb is revive — to give life again, which is something done repeatedly to a person who is still in there.
Read the chapter17For the fig tree will not flower, and there will be no bud on the vines. The labor of the olive tree will be misleading, and the farmland will produce no food. The sheep will be cut off from the sheepfold, and there will be no herd at the manger.
18But I will rejoice in the Lord; and I will exult in God my Jesus.
The list of losses is agricultural and total: fig tree, vines, olives, farmland, sheep, herd. It is not a poetic hypothesis — it is the description of a ruined household. And the "but I will rejoice" arrives with no explanation attached.
Read the chapterThe Lord is good, and a comforter in the day of tribulation, and he knows those who hope in him.
It sits in the middle of a book about the destruction of Nineveh, and it reads almost like a held breath. The closing verb is knows: not anonymous protection, but someone who knows who is in there.
Read the chapter16I considered, so that I might know this. It is a hardship before me,
17until I may enter into the Sanctuary of God, and understand it to its last part.
The psalmist tries to work out why the unjust prosper and gives up — the sum does not come out by logic. What changes is not the explanation; it is the place he is standing when he looks.
Read the chapterIn good times, enjoy good things, but beware of an evil time. For just as God has established the one, so also the other, in order that man may not find any just complaint against him.
Enjoy the good day, be wary of the bad one, and notice why: God set both, so that nobody ends up with a watertight complaint. Ecclesiastes is the one book that says outright you will not get to the bottom of it, and treats that as useful information.
Read the chapter3And not only that, but we also find glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation exercises patience,
4and patience leads to proving, yet truly proving leads to hope,
5but hope is not unfounded, because the love of God is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
The chain — tribulation, patience, proving, hope — describes a long process, not an immediate consolation. Said to someone standing at the first link it sounds cruel; read slowly, it is a map of the route.
Read the chapterAnd we know that, for those who love God, all things work together unto good, for those who, in accordance with his purpose, are called to be saints.
The most used painkiller in the Bible and the most misapplied. It does not say all things are good, nor that each one has a hidden purpose: it says they work together towards an end. That is a claim about the whole, not about the item.
Read the chapter2My brothers, when you have fallen into various trials, consider everything a joy,
3knowing that the proving of your faith exercises patience,
4and patience brings a work to perfection, so that you may be perfect and whole, deficient in nothing.
The joy asked for is not pleasure in the trial — it is knowing where the trial leads. And note the trigger: when you have fallen into it. James writes to people scattered by persecution, not to someone having a difficult week at work.
Read the chapterTemptation should not take hold of you, except what is human. For God is faithful, and he will not permit you to be tempted beyond your ability. Instead, he will effect his Providence, even during temptation, so that you may be able to bear it.
The verse everyone reaches for, and it is about temptation, not about suffering in general. Telling someone who is ill that God gives no more than they can bear is using the text for a subject it never addresses.
Read the chapterNow every discipline, in the present time, does not seem a gladness, of course, but a grief. But afterwards, it will repay a most peaceful fruit of justice to those who become trained in it.
The rare piece of honesty: in the present time, none of this seems like gladness. The author admits the benefit is only visible afterwards, and does not ask anyone to pretend otherwise in the meantime.
Read the chapter16For this reason, we are not insufficient. But it is as though our outer man is corrupted, while our inner man is renewed from day to day.
17For though our tribulation is, at the present time, brief and light, it accomplishes in us the weight of a sublime eternal glory, beyond measure.
18And we are contemplating, not the things that are seen, but the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are temporal, whereas the things that are not seen are eternal.
Calling your own affliction brief and light, coming from a man writing in the middle of years of hardship, is not minimising: it is a comparison of scale. It closes the list because it only works after everything that came before it.
Read the chapter
Frequently asked questions
What does the Bible say about hard times?
It does not promise the absence of difficulty. John 16:33 warns there will be trouble, Psalm 33:20 speaks of many afflictions coming to the just, and 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 describes someone enduring tribulation in all things yet not destroyed. The recurring promise is company and limit, not exemption.
Is "God will not give you more than you can bear" in the Bible?
It is a loose reading of 1 Corinthians 10:13, and that verse is about temptation, not about suffering. Paul is writing about the pressure to give in, not about illness or loss. Quoting it at a hospital bed makes the text answer a question it was never asked.
Why does God allow bad things to happen?
The Bible does not close this question. Job is given an encounter instead of an explanation, and Ecclesiastes 7:15 says plainly that God set the good day and the bad one both. Psalm 72:16-17 shows the psalmist giving up on understanding and changing where he stands to look.
Which verse should I read in a very hard season?
If you are at the start, Psalm 129:1-2 lets you cry out from the depths without organising the request. If it has been months, Habakkuk 3:17-18 comes closest: it lists total loss and holds on to faith without explaining how. Read one and leave it open.
A prayer to take with you
Lord, this is not over, and I am already tired of asking for the same thing. Do not let me harden on the way. If the way out is slow in coming, hold me in the middle of it: give me what today needs, and keep me from deciding out of exhaustion what I will regret later. Amen.