Trusting Jesus In Dark or Confusing Times

Before doing this study, please read the one-minute introduction Trusting God as the Engineer of our Lives. It features and explains this quote by Corrie ten Boom: “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”

Sadly, many Christians are taught that following Christ will make their lives easy. But Scripture never promises this. So let's look at some of the verses that tell us that the Christian life will contain persecution, hardship, and confusion at times. 

✔ After telling the Apostles about the coming hardships, Jesus said this: 

John 16:33: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” 

✔ The early church understood they would suffer hardships for their faith:

Acts 14:21-22: “They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. 'We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,' they said.”

✔ Peter explains that as we remain faithful under trials, we honor God with proof of our faith.

1 Peter 1:3-9:  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

✔ I love this statement of faithfulness made by Paul:

2 Corinthians 4:8-9: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

Have you thought about the purpose of difficulties in your walk with the Lord? 

Never forget that we can face these difficulties with the Lord's help!  

Free Subscription to Bite Size Bible Study. Have a short Bible study sent to your email several times a month.

10 Reasons You'll Love the book Wisdom for Life. A collection of 100 one-minute devotions from Psalms and Proverbs and a great gift for people who love God's Word.

Full description of the book Lies in Disguise. A much needed book to uncover half-truths that misuse Scripture and weaken Christian faith.

copyright 2015, Gail Burton Purath, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com, updated in 2026

 

 

Handling Confrontation With Grace

Before doing this study, please read the 1-minute introduction: HOW We Do Things is Important. It explains that our motives and methods matter when we're talking about sin or confronting a fellow believer. 

1. What about sarcasm, mockery and arrogance used by some Christian teachers?

If they don't have the HOW right, I'm suspect of anything they have to say, especially if they are "exposing the errors" of other Christian teachers or speakers. 

If we have to correct a fellow believer, but we must combine the salt of the Gospel with grace, not sarcasm, mockery, self-righteousness, rudeness, or bluntness: 

Colossians 4:6: Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. 

Ephesians 4:29: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

See Do You Know the Mom's Version of Ephesians 4:29? 

2 Timothy 2:24-26: The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25 Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

2. Self-righteousness is perhaps the biggest problem:

We can treat our parents, elders, and those in authority without respect.

See A Man Who Amazed Jesus.  

We can think we know the answers to our friend's problems even when we don't.

See Job's Judgmental Friends. 

We can think we have discernment when we simply overestimate our spiritual wisdom.

See "Thank You that I'm Not Like Other People."  

We need to remember this parable: 
Luke 18:9-14: To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’14 I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 

See I’m Pressing On, But I’m Not There Yet.

Free Subscription to Bite Size Bible Study. Have a short Bible study delivered to your email 2-3 times a month.

10 Reasons You'll Love the book Wisdom for Life. A collection of 100 one-minute devotions from Psalms and Proverbs and a great gift for people who love God's Word.

Full description of the book Lies in Disguise. A much needed book to uncover half-truths that misuse Scripture and weaken Christian faith. 

copyright, Gail Burton Purath, 2015, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com, updated in 2026

 

 

 

Our Jealous God Bible Study

Before doing this short Bible study, please read the one-minute introduction Our Jealous God. 

 

It explains that the type of Jealousy God has for us is holy, righteous, and a blessing,

“Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” Deuteronomy 4:23-24:

A similar passage is found several chapters later. God obviously wanted to make this clear:  

Deuteronomy 6:14-19: Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; 15 for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. 16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah. 17 Be sure to keep the commands of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. 18 Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors, 19 thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the Lord said.” 

See Righteous Jealousy. 

Pagan worship was a predominant part of Israel's history. 

Read Psalm 106 that outlines Israel's repeated rebellion against God. Notice verses 19, 28, and 34-39.  

Paganism damages our hearts and souls, and faith in God builds, inspires, and strengthens our souls. God is jealous because He loves and cares for us.

These passages are New Testament confirmations of the passages in Deuteronomy.

What kind of gods do modern Christians sometimes honor? Some are pagan and some are not. See Priorities and Our Jealous God.

1 Corinthians 10:18-22: Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he? 

The Apostle Paul showed a similar jealousy for those he'd discipled: 

2 Corinthians 11:1-3: I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! 2 For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 

2 Corinthians 6:15-17: What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”17 Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 

 

copyright, Gail Burton Purath, 2015, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com, updated in 2026