On Bibles.net you will find a collection of over 100 devotionals, each one a five-minute read or less, written by our editorial team. While uploading them to the website, we noticed a trend: Many of them touch on the topic of suffering. Many of our devotionals are especially relevant to someone undergoing painful circumstances or weathering hard emotions.
We thought to gather for you the devotionals that are especially relevant to someone enduring a hard season. We pray these devotionals serve to bring hope to your hurting heart.
15 Short Devotionals for Tough Times
Below you will find the title and key verse for each devotional listed.
1. Are You Feeling Low?
I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. (Philippians 4:12 ESV)
2. Are You Carrying an Emotionally Crushing Burden?
Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. (Psalm 55:22 ESV)
3. God Counts My Tears, Every Single One
You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? (Psalm 56:8 ESV)
4. When the Life You Expected Shatters
The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:28-35 NIV)
5. No, This Suffering Isn’t God Punishing You
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but 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. (Romans 5:1-5 ESV)
6. A Bible Verse for Tough Times
For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. (2 Corinthians 1:5-6 NIV)
7. Are You in Denial About Your Suffering?
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. (Psalm 23:4 ESV)
8. Ask for a Life-Giving Promise
This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life. (Psalm 119:50 ESV)
9. A Promise to Cling to in Your Suffering
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:18 ESV)
10. Underneath Are the Everlasting Arms
There is no one like the God of Israel. He rides across the heavens to help you, across the skies in majestic splendor. The eternal God is your refuge, and his everlasting arms are under you. (Deuteronomy 33:26-27 NLT)
11. One Verse About Empathy in the Bible Tells Us God Has an Empathetic Heart
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15 NIV)
12. The One Thing God Wants You to Do in Your Pain
Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:29 ESV)
13. Laugh, It’s Good for You
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. (Proverbs 17:22 ESV)
14. What Can Separate Us from the Love of God?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?… No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35, 37-39 NIV)
15. How Does God Comfort Us?
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NLT)
Encouragement from God’s Word for Tough Times
We hope that God’s Spirit spoke to you through one of these devotionals today. Do you long for more encouragement? Do you want to know how the Bible speaks to hurting people? We encourage you to explore our page: What Does the Bible Say About Suffering? If you’re not ready for that, consider checking out our Songs for the Suffering playlists—music carefully curated to encourage you through every state of the heart that pain leads us through.