“Hope deferred makes the heart sick...” Proverbs 13:12 (NLT)

 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)

 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (NIV)

“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through him.” John 3:16-17 (Amp)

 “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James 1:2-4 (MSG) 

“There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” 1 Peter 1:6-7 (NLT)

God accomplishes His purposes through my problems!

“...in him [Jesus] all things hold together.” Colossians 1:17 (NIV)

John MacArthur in his commentary on Colossians says this: 

“Not only did Jesus create the universe; he also sustains it. He maintains the delicate balance necessary to life’s existence. He quite literally holds all things together. He is the power behind every consistency in the universe.”

Dr. Douglas Moo in his commentary on Colossians says

“What holds the universe together is not an idea or a virtue, but a person: the resurrected Christ.

Without him, electrons would not continue to circle nuclei, gravity would cease to work, the planets would not stay in their orbits.”

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved…” 2 Peter 3:10 (ESV)

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)

“He [Jesus] is the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God’s] nature...” Hebrews 1:3a (Amp)

Some of God’s Promises

 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.” Psalm 46:1-3 (NIV)

“The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11 (NASB)

“The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.” Ps. 92:12-13 (NIV)

“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 (NASB)

“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:3 (NASB)

See also: Matthew 6:25-32; John 10:27-30 & 14:16; Romans 5:6-10; Philippians 4:6-7; 1 John 1:9; Deuteronomy 31:8.

 “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”  Colossians 1:19-20 (NIV)