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1. Bury yourself in work and become a workaholic.
2. Look for a party to have fun.
3. Stuff yourself with food.
4. Turn to a familiar or monotonous routine.
5. Seek sexual stimulation - porn, masturbation, or an affair.
6. Explode with cursing a blue streak.
7. Look for someone to fight with.
8. Withdraw from everyone and wallow in self pity.
9. Go somewhere and get drunk.
10. Use your imagination to transport yourself to another world or situation.
11. Try to sleep away your problems.
12. Use drugs to alter your thoughts and feelings.
13. Get into the car and go for a long drive.
14. Hand wash your car.
15. Unload your problems on a friend or family member.
16. Thoroughly clean your house or office.
17. Go to the gym and work out until you are exhausted.
18. Vent your problems in an art form.
19. Use self deception telling yourself it just didn't happen to you.
20. Spend an excessive amount of time and energy to explain or figure out the problem.
21. Do something daring, dangerous, or risky.
22. Focus on how you might hurt yourself or commit suicide.
23. Throw a temper tantrum shouting and throwing things.
24. Become engrossed in some competitive sport.
25. Indulge yourself in trying to please your children or grandchildren.
26. Go on a shopping spree and buy things that you don't need or can't afford.
27. Drown yourself in loud, pounding music.
28. Try to relive a more pleasant experience or time in your mind.
29. Cover yourself with church work, mission work, or charity work.
30. Bury yourself in reading a novel or watching a movie.
31. Take up smoking again.
32. Try to make light of the situation and say, "It's not all that bad."
33. Try to take absolute control over every situation out of fear, be it little or big.

I. Here are some things that we need to see.

"For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us" (II Corinthians 1:8-10).

A. We should not be surprised that even Believers have tribulation.

1. Paul did not hide the fact that they had faced tribulation in Asia.

2. Jesus said, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world"  (John 16:33).

3. Peter said, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you"  (I Peter 4:12).

B. We need to see that we are not the only ones who has tribulation.

Paul made it known to the church at Corinth that they had had trouble (literally "tribulation") in Asia.  However, he doesn't say here exactly what it was.  I believe that the Holy Spirit didn't allow him to give specifics at this point, otherwise everyone would compare their problems to Paul's and say, "Well, Paul didn't have the problems I have."

1. They were pressed out beyond measure.

2. They had come to the end of their strength.

3. They were looking at the probability of death.

C. We need to see that there is a purpose in our tribulation.

Although they were facing death, Paul saw a purpose in the tribulation!  It wasn't for nothing!  It had a divine meaning!  Although they were facing a death sentence, the trouble was to bring them to the point where they could no longer trust in their own ability to resolve or get out of the problems, so that they would turn to trust in God.  Paul looked beyond the problem ... even death to see that God could raise the dead. In Acts 14:19 in Lystra, Paul was stoned, cast out of the city, and left for being dead. Look what Paul later said in the letter to the Church at Corinth, "Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft"  (II Corinthians 11:23).

Another purpose in tribulation is to find God's comfort that we may comfort others.  "Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God"  (II Corinthians 1:4). 

D. We need to remember that God keeps His promises.

Do you remember when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac? Abraham believed that if he sacrificed Isaac, that God would have to raise Isaac from the dead to keep His promise. "Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure"  (Hebrews 11:19).

E. We need to remember that God is consistent.

Paul concludes by saying that God had delivered them, that God was delivering them, and that they were trusting that God would deliver them.  He looks at God being consistent in the past, present, and future.  When we face tribulation need to remember what God has done, see what God is doing, and believe what God will do based upon his faithfulness.

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever"  (Hebrews 13:8).

II. Here is what we should do.

A. We are to turn to God in the day of trouble.  Nahum the prophet said, "The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him"  (Nahum 1:7).

B. We are to trust in the the Lord.  "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding"  (Proverbs 3:5). To trust in the Lord means that we can't figure it all out.  We are simply to trust. 

C. We are to cast our cares upon God. Why? It is because He cares for us. Our cares are anything that we are holding in our hands.  Peter declared, "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world."  (I Peter 5:7-9).  This means that we have to let go of the situation and put everything into God's hands.

III. How do we do it?

A. First, we do it through prayer.  God said, "And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me"  (Psalms 50:15).  "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God"  (Philippians 4:6).

B. Second, we do it through thanksgiving and praise. "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you"  (I Thessalonians 5:18).  We are to praise Him even when it hurts.  "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name"  (Hebrews 13:15).

C. Third, we are to declare God's blessings with words. "I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth"  (Psalms 34:1).  "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer"  (Psalms 19:14).  "Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever"  (Psalms 145:2).

D. Fourth, we are comfort others who are in trouble.  "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God"  (II Corinthians 1:3-4).

E. Fifth, we are to learn to be content no matter the situation.  "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need"  (Philippians 4:11-12).