12 encouraging Bible verses
A collection to read, save, and share · 12 verses
Encouragement in the Bible is not cheerfulness. The word means to put courage into someone.
That is a transfer, and it assumes the person receiving it has run out. Scripture never encourages by telling people their situation is better than they thought.
These twelve are the ones worth having close — short enough to remember, sturdy enough to hold weight. Several are worth sending to someone else today.
For a hard week
“Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
The encouragement is not that it will go well. It is that you will not be alone in it, which is the only promise scripture consistently makes.
“He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might.”
Addressed specifically to those with nothing left. If you are running on empty, this verse is not about someone else.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Frequently borrowed for sport. In context Paul is talking about coping with having plenty and having nothing — it is a verse about endurance, not achievement.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
Very present is the phrase that carries it. Not distant, not on the way — already here, in the trouble rather than after it.
“Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.”
Paul concedes the decline rather than denying it. The encouragement runs alongside the difficulty, not instead of it.
“The LORD himself is who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed.”
Before you, with you. Whatever you are walking into, the claim is that it is not unoccupied territory.
For the long haul
“Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up.”
For the people quietly doing the right thing with no visible result. The verse does not promise a timeline, only that the season exists.
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you.”
Through, again. Scripture almost never promises around, and it is worth noticing how consistently it declines to.
“Cast your burden on the LORD and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be moved.”
Sustain is a smaller word than rescue and often the more useful one. Being held steady is not nothing.
“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
Not in vain is aimed at the suspicion that none of it counted. Paul’s answer is that the ledger is kept somewhere other than where you can see it.
“What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
A rhetorical question with plenty of literal answers — Paul lists several right afterwards. The point is not that opposition is absent but that it is outweighed.
“The LORD, your God, is among you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.”
One of the few places scripture describes God’s feelings about his people. Whatever you think he thinks of you, this verse suggests you have it too low.
Carry one with you today
Choose the one that landed and send it to someone before you close this page. Encouragement in scripture is nearly always described as something passed between people.