God's Promises During Times of Trouble Sampler

®

DURING TIMES OF TROUBLE

JACK COUNTRYMAN

God’s Promises® During Times of Trouble

© 2023 Jack Countryman

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Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV ® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE . Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken the New American Standard Bible® ( NASB). Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org.

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Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked TLB are taken The Living Bible. Copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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ISBN 978-1-4003-3428-5 (audio download)

ISBN 978-1-4003-3427-8 (eBook)

ISBN 978-1-4003-3426-1 (softcover)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on File Printed in India 23 24 25 26 27 RPI 6 5 4 3 2 1

GOD PROMISES YOU HIS WORD OF TRUTH

So many times in life, we are faced with challenges and disappointments. Thankfully, God has given us His encouraging words of Scripture to give us answers when we are facing these difficult times. God’s Promises® During Times of Trouble shares God’s promises and truths to offer comfort and peace when times are hard.

As you go through this book, you will find ten sections, each containing five topics to help you navigate life’s trials and tribulations. God’s Promises® During Times of Trouble is filled with content to help you deal with life’s challenges. In this edition, we have included inspirational quotes from outstanding Christian authors that speak to your needs when you feel like life is out of control. In today’s noisy world, with its myriad voices calling you in different directions, it is easy to find yourself confused. The loud and contradictory message of the world speaks— about your values and purpose, about what to believe, and about how to live— and can sometimes cause uncertainty about specific situations and who

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you are in general. By God’s grace, He has provided His Word of truth. You can open the pages of Scripture in this book and find all the answers you need to honor God with what you say and do. Take time to get away from the noise of life and spend time alone with God, reading and believing His promises to you. He will direct your path toward peace and contentment and clarity— gifts that only He can give. We pray that by spending time in God’s Word, you will find the answers you need in life, and that God will give you His peace that passes all understanding.

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“But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

“Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.”

MATTHEW 6:6–8

SCRIPTURE OVERFLOWS WITH GOD’S PROMISES

RICK WARREN ON GOD’S WORD

Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32 niv). When you base your life on truth—when you live with the right kind of thoughts, not misconceptions or false beliefs, and you base your life on right thoughts out of God’s Word—you will be set free. You will find your old habits, feelings, and actions falling away. . . .

Meditate on God’s Word. Read through the book of Psalms and see how many times David speaks of meditating on God’s Word.

In Psalm 1 we read, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.” In other words, that person doesn’t get his input from the wrong sources. “But his delight is in the law of the Lord [the Bible], and on his law he meditates day and night.” As a result, “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers” (emphasis added).

God says that when we meditate on his Word day and night, we will bear fruit. We will be fruitful, productive people— people full of love, joy, peace, patience, and the rest of the fruit of the Spirit. He also says we will prosper.

— God’s Power to Change Your Life 1

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

JOHN 8:31–32

GOD PROMISES A PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

EPHESIANS 2:10

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you.

JEREMIAH 1:4–5

Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.

COLOSSIANS 3:23–24

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.

PROVERBS 16:9 NIV

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Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday.

Blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, And do not disdain it.

Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoever finds me finds life, And obtains favor from the Lord.

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PSALM 37:3–6 PROVERBS 8:32–35

Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.

PSALM 100:2–5

Then Job answered the Lord and said:

“I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.”

JOB 42:1–2

Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered.

PSALM 40:5

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GOD PROMISES ANSWERED PRAYER

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

MATTHEW 7:7–8

“If you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

MATTHEW 21:21–22

“If two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

MATTHEW 18:19–20

“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

MARK 11:24

“I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

JOHN 14:12–14

“Whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”

JOHN 16:23–24

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them.

PSALM 145:18–19

“When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

MATTHEW 6:5–6

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GOD PROMISES THE POWER OF HIS WORD

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward.

PSALM 19:7–11

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight,

O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

PSALM 19:14

“I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

ISAIAH 55:11

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JOHN 12:49–50 2 TIMOTHY 3:16–17 PSALM 119:105

Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, And I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it.

PSALM 119:33–35

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

HEBREWS 4:12

Every word of God has been proven true. He is a safecovering to those who trust in Him.

PROVERBS 30:5 NLV

How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.

PSALM 119:9–10 NIV

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