72 Bible Verses about Unbearable Suffering

Mark 16:16 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 5 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...

1 Peter 4:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Romans 8:28 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

John 10:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Mark 3:28-29 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—

Ecclesiastes 7:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?

Job 7:15-16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

So that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones. I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.

1 Peter 2:21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

James 1:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

Hebrews 2:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Hebrews 2:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

Philippians 1:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 5:3-4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

John 3:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Revelation 22:4-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Revelation 21:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

1 Peter 2:1-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ...

1 Peter 1:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

James 4:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Hebrews 12:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 6:4-6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

Hebrews 5:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

Hebrews 4:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 2:9-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

2 Timothy 3:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

1 Thessalonians 1:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,

Colossians 1:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,

Philippians 1:29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,

Ephesians 6:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

2 Corinthians 7:9-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

2 Corinthians 1:8-9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Romans 8:37 ESV / 2 helpful votes

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Romans 8:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:26 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Romans 8:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Romans 8:1-39 ESV / 2 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ...

Romans 5:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

Acts 9:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

Acts 5:41 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

John 16:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

John 15:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

Luke 24:46 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,

Mark 8:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Matthew 11:28-29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Matthew 10:29-31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Matthew 1:1-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, ...

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 20:14-18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed! Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, “A son is born to you,” making him very glad. Let that man be like the cities that the Lord overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon, because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great. Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?

Isaiah 53:1-12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. ...

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. ...

Isaiah 1:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Psalm 139:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Psalm 37:1-40 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Of David. Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. ...

Psalm 34:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

Psalm 13:2-4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

Job 6:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

This would be my comfort; I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

Job 2:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Job 1:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

1 Chronicles 16:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!

1 Samuel 31:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers.

Deuteronomy 31:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Exodus 20:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“You shall not murder.

Genesis 3:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

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