'Trying' in the Bible
"But woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in.
The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were trying to find false testimony against Jesus so that they could put him to death.
Two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the chief priests and the experts in the law were trying to find a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.
Just then some men showed up, carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher. They were trying to bring him in and place him before Jesus.
The whole crowd was trying to touch him, because power was coming out from him and healing them all.
He was trying to get a look at Jesus, but being a short man he could not see over the crowd.
The chief priests and the experts in the law were trying to find some way to execute Jesus, for they were afraid of the people.
The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get into the water, someone else goes down there before me."
For this reason the Jewish leaders were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.
The crowd answered, "You're possessed by a demon! Who is trying to kill you?"
Then some of the residents of Jerusalem began to say, "Isn't this the man they are trying to kill?
But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth I heard from God. Abraham did not do this!
I am not trying to get praise for myself. There is one who demands it, and he also judges.
The disciples replied, "Rabbi, the Jewish leaders were just now trying to stone you to death! Are you going there again?"
But Saul was trying to destroy the church; entering one house after another, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
He was speaking and debating with the Greek-speaking Jews, but they were trying to kill him.
But the magician Elymas (for that is the way his name is translated) opposed them, trying to turn the proconsul away from the faith.
But the Jews became jealous, and gathering together some worthless men from the rabble in the marketplace, they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. They attacked Jason's house, trying to find Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly.
While they were trying to kill him, a report was sent up to the commanding officer of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.
If then I am in the wrong and have done anything that deserves death, I am not trying to escape dying, but if not one of their charges against me is true, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!"
For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple courts and were trying to kill me.
They set a day to meet with him, and they came to him where he was staying in even greater numbers. From morning until evening he explained things to them, testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets.
But if you marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face difficult circumstances, and I am trying to spare you such problems.
Or are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we really stronger than he is?
Do you not have houses so that you can eat and drink? Or are you trying to show contempt for the church of God by shaming those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I will not praise you for this!
We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may be able to answer those who take pride in outward appearance and not in what is in the heart.
I do not want to seem as though I am trying to terrify you with my letters,
Am I now trying to gain the approval of people, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ!
For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I was savagely persecuting the church of God and trying to destroy it.
Are you so foolish? Although you began with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort?
You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace!
Those who want to make a good showing in external matters are trying to force you to be circumcised. They do so only to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.
Dear friends, this is already the second letter I have written you, in which I am trying to stir up your pure mind by way of reminder:
These things I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you.