tribulation Archives - Soul Survival

“When You’re Experiencing Tribulation & Distress” March 5

Mar 5, 2026

Life seems to be full of choices. Little choices. Big choices. But in reality, there are only two. Yet, making the right one often determines whether life goes well or whether life gets hard. If our lives are full of tribulation and distress, we may need to examine our choices in light of this principle. When we do, we can enjoy what the Apostle Paul called glory, honor, and peace, in place of tribulation and distress.

Check out today’s reading in Proverbs to find out more about those two choices and their connection to tribulation, distress, and hardship.

“What Happens When You Put Your Hope in a Lie?” December 19

Dec 19, 2025

What happens when the thing you’re trusting turns out not to be true?

The people in Micah’s day were about to find out.

God had sent prophets to warn them.

But they didn’t want the warnings.

They wanted teachers who would tell them what they preferred to hear.

So they rejected God’s truth and put their hope in lies.

That sounds familiar.

Satan’s strategy hasn’t changed very much since the Garden.

It often begins with a question:

“Did God really say…?”

Then doubt becomes denial.

And eventually people can build entire belief systems around things God never said—or around outright contradictions of what He has said.

But deception always comes with a price.

Sometimes the consequences show up in this life through disappointment, disillusionment, anger at God, or shattered expectations.

Sometimes the consequences are far more serious.

So where is your hope?

Is it grounded in what God has actually said—or in something you simply want to be true?

And in Revelation 9, the fifth and sixth trumpet judgments sound.

The fifth unleashes creatures so terrifying that people will long to die but will not be able to.

And the sixth is even worse.

Yet perhaps the most frightening part of the chapter isn’t the demons, the death, or the devastation.

It’s what people still refuse to do afterward.

“After the Chaos Comes a Pause—What Happens Next?” December 17

Dec 17, 2025

Yesterday in Revelation 6, the world was reeling.

Deception.

War.

Famine.

Death.

Earthquakes.

Cosmic disturbances.

And finally, people recognizing that the terrifying events around them were connected to the wrath of the Lamb.

Then something unexpected happens.

The winds are restrained.

Judgment pauses.

And after all that chaos, the world is left wondering:

What happens next?

But while Revelation raises that frightening question about God’s judgment, today’s Old Testament reading raises another question much closer to home.

What happens in our hearts when trouble comes to someone who has hurt us?

Have you ever felt just a little satisfaction when someone who criticized you, mistreated you, or made life difficult finally suffered a setback?

Maybe you didn’t say anything.

Maybe you even tried to look sympathetic.

But somewhere inside you thought:

“Well … what goes around comes around.”

Is that harmless?

Or does Obadiah reveal something about our hearts that God takes far more seriously than we might think?

Today we’ll look at a dramatic pause in Revelation, God’s protection of the 144,000, the multitude who will come to Christ during the Tribulation—and a warning about rejoicing when someone else falls.

“What Happens When God Opens the Seven Seals?” December 16

Dec 16, 2025

The book of Revelation can be difficult to understand.

Its images are dramatic.

Its judgments are terrifying.

And Revelation 6 takes us into some of the most sobering events in all of Scripture.

But before we focus on horses, earthquakes, famine, death, and cosmic disturbances, there is something important we need to remember.

God is merciful.

God is gracious.

And God is also the perfectly righteous Judge.

He is patient with sinners, but He will not ignore evil forever.

One day, according to Revelation, the Lamb will begin opening the seals of the scroll.

And when He does, the world will enter a period of judgment unlike anything it has known before.

What will that look like?

Why does Scripture tell us about it in such vivid detail?

And could these frightening warnings themselves reveal something about God’s mercy?

Perhaps the most sobering question comes near the end of the chapter.

People will finally recognize that God’s judgment has come.

But instead of running to Him, they will cry out for the mountains to hide them.

Why?

And what does that reveal about the human heart—and about the urgency of responding to Christ now?

“Responding to Difficult People”

Aug 6, 2017

Do you have any difficult people in your life? Most of us do. Is there someone that God has not changed (even though you have been praying and praying) … and it’s hard? So, how does God want us to respond to them?