The Bible has verses about staying positive, especially amid suffering. Staying positive in life is important. It is a difficult world we live in today, and we can often experience problems, adversity, setbacks, and suffering. What we consider to be problems can often be solutions God has given us from heaven to help us achieve our salvation.
What do you mean by salvation?
Salvation as in being judged worthy by Christ to be with Him forever in heaven. If you think about the saints, many of them suffered tremendously, and that suffering, given to them from God, helped form them into the saints we know and love today.
“The greater your sufferings, the greater God’s love for you.” – St. Padre Pio
What does it mean to stay positive?
Staying positive means always focusing on the good and having optimism that things will work out for the best, especially with our eternal salvation in mind.
How do I stay positive amid suffering?
Staying positive amid suffering is a recognition that the suffering is God’s will for you, and the purification from the suffering will help bring about a greater good in you.
The Paradox of Suffering
It is a mysterious paradox that suffering, when offered up to Jesus on the cross, has redemptive value, and it will help form you into the saint God wills for you to be.
Jesus Advises Us in the Gospel
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Mark 8:36
It doesn’t do you any good to “have it all” as they say: looks, talents, wealth, pleasure, power, fame, easy life, etc. if it only leads to eternal destruction in the end.
Jesus warns us in the Bible many people reject the call to walk the path of the cross:
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few. Matthew 7:13-14
Staying Positive in Your Discipleship
Staying Positive in Christ’s Love for You
In your discipleship, stay positive in Christ and stay close to Him on the cross.
The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18
“The cross is the Father’s will, the glory of the only begotten, the joy of the Spirit, the pride of the angels, the guarantee of the Church, Paul’s boast, the bulwark of the saints, and the light of the entire world.” – St. John Chrysostom
3 Bible Verses About Staying Positive
#1 Bible Verse about Hope in Hard Times
Do not fear: I am with you; do not be anxious: I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. Isaiah 41:10
It is good to know God is with us in the struggle. The verse is taken from a passage about God being the Liberator of Israel. In the same way, acknowledge your sufferings, offer them up to Jesus on the cross. We hope in Jesus for his grace to help us.
Q. What is Hope? A. Hope is a Divine virtue by which we firmly trust that God will give us eternal life and the means to obtain it. Source: The Baltimore Catechism
#2 Staying Positive in the Book of Proverbs
A joyful heart is the health of the body, but a depressed spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs 17:22
Let this proverb serve as a reminder that staying positive will require persistent work on our part within the interior life. We have to meet Jesus in the middle of the field.
“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as if everything depended on you.” – St. Augustine
We can say ardently and joyfully with gratitude and good faith again and again:
“God is going to get me through this,” and to feel it in your whole being.
A glad heart lights up the face. Proverbs 15:13a
It can be the good you feel when you do good for another or for a loved one.
Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Proverbs 11:25b
It can be the joy you feel with God in prayer, Word, and sacrament. The main thing is to always strive to cultivate joy, gratitude, and the positivity within.
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, forgiveness. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy…” – St. Francis of Assisi
#3 Inspirational Verse about God’s Providence
For I know well the plans I have in mind for you—oracle of the LORD—plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope. Jeremiah 29:11
A Future of Hope
Long before you were born, God had already established His plans for you.
Whether it was the job you wanted, the person you wanted to marry, and that kind of thing, if you thought it should have worked out, but it did not, stay positive and know it was not God’s will for you. God has better plans for you! Our hope is in Him.
Trust in God’s Providence
The human heart plans the way, but the LORD directs the steps. Proverbs 16:9
Many are the plans of the human heart, but it is the decision of the LORD that endures. Proverbs 19:21
Our steps are from the LORD; how, then, can mortals understand their way? Proverbs 20:24
I know, LORD, that no one chooses their way, Nor determines their course nor directs their own step. Jeremiah 10:23
Recap
I hope this post might help you to stay positive amid suffering. Let’s review the verses one more time, and let us consider these verses are from the mind of Christ.
Staying Positive Amid Suffering
# 1 Have hope: God is with you amid suffering.
#2 Be mindful to cultivate joy within and stay positive in Christ.
#3 Trust in God’s Providence leading you in your life.
Lastly, we are called by Christ to have gratitude in all things and to keep the faith +
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 10:39