You'll Get Through This Bible Study Guide: Hope and Help for Your Turbulent Times

By Max Lucado

You fear you won't make it through. We all do. We fear that the depression will never lift, the yelling will never stop, the pain will never leave. In the pits, surrounded by steep walls and aching reminders, we wonder: Will this gray sky ever brighten? This load ever lighten?

In this six-session small group Bible study, pastor and New York Times best-selling author, Max Lucado offers refreshing assurance. Max reminds participants God doesn't promise that getting through trials will be quick or painless. It wasn't for Joseph—tossed in a pit by his brothers, sold into slavery, wrongfully imprisoned, forgotten and dismissed. But his Old Testament story is in the Bible for this reason: to teach us to trust God to trump evil.

With the compassion of a pastor, the heart of a storyteller, and the joy of one who has seen what God can do, Max explores the story of Joseph and the truth of Genesis 50:20. What Satan intends for evil, God redeems for good.

The six sessions include:

1. You’ll Get Through This
2. Down and Out, But Never Alone
3. Stupid Won’t Fix Stupid
4. Is God Good When Life Isn’t
5. Now, About Those Family Scandals and Scoundrels
6. God Can Use This for Good

Designed for use with the You’ll Get Through This DVD.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Sep 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9780849923005

Max Lucado

Since entering the ministry in 1978, Max Lucado has served churches in Miami, Florida; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and San Antonio, Texas. He currently serves as the teaching minister of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio. He is the recipient of the 2021 ECPA Pinnacle Award for his outstanding contribution to the publishing industry and society at large. He is America's bestselling inspirational author with more than 150 million products in print. Visit his website at MaxLucado.com Facebook.com/MaxLucado Instagram.com/MaxLucado Twitter.com/MaxLucado Youtube.com/MaxLucadoOfficial The Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast

Book preview

Contents

INTRODUCTION  Hitting the Wall

SESSION 1  You’ll Get Through This

SESSION 2  Down and Out, but Never Alone

SESSION 3  Stupid Won’t Fix Stupid

SESSION 4  Is God Good When Life Isn’t?

SESSION 5  Now, About Those Family Scandals and Scoundrels

SESSION 6  God Can Use This for Good

Small Group Leader Helps

Of Note

The quotations interspersed throughout this study guide are excerpts from the book You’ll Get Through This by Max Lucado and from the video curriculum of the same name. All other resources — including the introductions, small group questions, between-sessions materials, and the small group leader helps — have been written by Kevin and Sherry Harney.

Hitting the Wall

Marathoners call it hitting the wall. They come to a point where their bodies say, No more. Their legs feel like they are made of lead. Their respiratory systems scream, Stop!

Triathletes call it bonking. As they swim, then ride, and finally run, they feel their bodies begin to shut down. They’ve bonked.

You don’t have to be an extreme athlete to know how it feels to hit a point where it seems you simply can’t press on.

Brenda has lovingly walked beside her husband for years, poured her life into the family, and cared as best she can. Then she discovers that the man who said, I do, no longer does. She wonders, How can I make it through this? Can I go on? Will I survive another day?

Daniel has worked for the company for two decades. He has given his heart, soul, and countless late nights and weekends to help the business increase its bottom line. Now he stands at his car, a box of items from his desk in his arms. With no warning, he has been informed that his services are no longer required and walked out of the building by security. He’s in shock. What will I tell my wife and kids? How will I pay the bills? Can we survive this?

Curtis lives for the Friday night lights. Football is not just a sport; it is the air he breathes. He has offers for college scholarships and his stock is rising. Late in the game, as a defensive end tackles him at the end of a run, he feels a searing pain run through his leg and hears a snap, loud as a firecracker. While being wheeled to the ambulance, his mind races: What if I can’t play for the rest of the season? What if I don’t get a scholarship? I can’t imagine my life without football; can I make it through this?

In large or small ways, we all come to moments of deep distress: a doctor’s report, a broken engagement, a poor personal choice, a shift in the stock market, a relational betrayal, a corporate down-size, or one of a million other unexpected events. In these times, the blue skies of life can seem to disappear behind the clouds of our circumstances and a chilly uncertainty runs down our spine. We begin to wonder if there is a way through the pain and heartache of what’s ahead. We look down at the fuel gauge on the console of our life and it registers empty. We might feel emotionally depleted, physically exhausted, relationally hopeless, spiritually barren, or mentally fatigued.

In these times the enemy of our soul wants to whisper, with sinister intent, You will never make it. This is the end of the road for you.

God speaks a radically different message. Through his Word, by his Holy Spirit, and through the lives of wonderful examples, God declares with heavenly wisdom, "You’ll get through this. It won’t be painless. It won’t be quick. But I will use this mess for good. In the meantime, don’t be foolish or naive. But don’t despair

Reviews for You'll Get Through This Bible Study Guide

[gbraden_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A book about crisis, about God, about the other side, an ending that will eventually come.There is no formula, no verses taken out of content, no promises that will be a quick end to your pain.God is in that pain. Divorce, infidelity, death, sickness, wounds, mental health issues, sexual abuse and rape. God is in these things. He uses them, He teaches with them, He strengthens you with them. He never leaves you alone to handle them. You might need to wait to be rescued from them.Look at Job, David, Daniel and Christ. Look at the story of Joseph. Max uses the story of Joseph to show that even at the lowest points in Joseph's life, God was there. Thrown in a pit, sold into slavery, accused of attempted rape, thrown into prison, forgotten, God was there in every aspect. What was intended for evil, God has used for good.Max also had made references to everyday people trying to manage everyday crisis. I know God is in control of my life. I know what outcome I would like, and I pray for such, but God is sovereign and he might have a different outcome then what I desire. Simple for me, face what I am facing, taking one step at a time, like Christian, in "Pilgrim's Progress", the hardest thing is laying that burden at the feet of God, after that, "Keep Calm and Carry On".I did not think I would like the book. I read it because it was a gift. I highly recommend this book, especially if you are looking to see where God was in the midst of your troubles.

[hobbitprincess · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was written in 2013, but it sure does apply to this 2020 Covid-19 issue. Lucado has used excerpts from his books in his daily email devotional, and I think that was a wise move. As always, Lucado writes in an easy-to-read, truly inspirational book that applies to any difficult season of our lives.

[jothebookgirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The focus of our Bible school, (Boone First Pres.) this July 2016 was Joseph from prison to throne. A friend gave me this book to read which took the events in his life and related it to 21st century common life situations.. I have never read Max Lucado thinking he was a conservative pious story writer. He surprised me with chapter titles like, is God good when life isn't and revenge feels good but then..... Yes, I was being judgmental without delving into the facts. Another lesson learned.
His writing is easy and sometimes comical as he describes the appearance of Joseph's brothers when they arrived in Egypt requesting grain. "These Hebrews stuck out in sophisticated Egypt like hillbillies in Times Square."

Lucado throws in a lot of common interest stories related to the trials of Joseph; for example, the history behind the poster, Keep Calm and Carry On, John Glenn's wife, Annie of 69 years who battled severe stuttering, adopted Christine Caine who after learning the circumstance of her adoption went out to help women lost in the horrible life of human trafficking, Matt Stephen a high school basketball player from Upper Darby, PA. Oh did I mention Matt is blind.

I learned a lot more about Joseph's story even though I have heard this since childhood Sunday school. Lucado doesn't place all the blame on the brothers who put him in the pit and told their father an animal killed him. He says Joseph needs to take much of the blame as he flaunts his preference by his father and his dreams of being bowed down to. But in the end family reigned and there was genuine forgiveness by all
I don't currently find myself needing help for turbulent times in my life , but I certainly was uplifted and encouraged by this book.

[jmcgarry2011 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I got the Salvation Army edition of this book at a seminar. It's a good book. It tells the story of Joseph (very appropriate for me) in the Old Testament, and how he got through tough circumstances. A very inspiriational book.