22 encouraging Bible verses for the day your strength runs out
Written by Raphael Navarro Schmitt · Reviewed by Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt ·
Short answer
Encouragement in the Bible almost always comes with a reason attached. Joshua 1:9 orders strength because God goes with you, Isaiah 43:2 promises company inside the water and the fire, and Deuteronomy 31:8 names him your commander and rules out being abandoned. It is not loose cheer: it is a command with grounds.
Notice one thing running through nearly every text on this list: none of them tells you to be brave and then stops. A "because" always follows. Be strong, because I go with you. Do not be afraid, because he goes ahead of you. Have confidence, because I have overcome the world. Biblical encouragement is an order followed by a reason, and the reason is never you.
The other striking thing is who these lines were said to. Joshua has just lost Moses. The psalmist of Psalm 41 is far from the temple and getting no answer. David hands his son a job several sizes too big for him. Not one of these sentences was spoken on a good day — every one of them was spoken on a day when the strength ran out.
The list opens with the verses for you. The middle ones are for when somebody else needs to hear something from you. The last ones are for the night, when nobody is around.
All 22 verses, one by one
Behold, I am instructing you. Be strengthened, and be steadfast. Do not dread, and do not fear. For the Lord your God is with you in all things, wherever you may go.”
Said to a man who has just inherited Moses’ job — and the job came with an entire nation and a river in front of it. Courage here is commanded, which suggests it is a decision before it is a feeling.
Read the chapterAnd the Lord, who is your commander, will himself be with you. He will neither renounce nor abandon you. Do not be afraid, and do not dread.”
Two things in one sentence: he is named your commander, the one who goes ahead, and he is promised as the one who will be with you. Leader and companion at once — and then the blunt double negative, that he will neither renounce nor abandon you.
Read the chapterWhen you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and the rivers will not cover you. When you walk through fire, you will not be burned, and the flames will not scorch you.
The preposition is through, again: through the waters, through the fire. Nobody is routed around the problem. The promise concerns what happens inside it.
Read the chapterA Psalm of David, before he was sealed. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?
The psalm title runs straight into the first line here, so the verse opens with its own setting attached. Then David answers his own question before asking the second one. It is short enough to repeat while walking down a difficult corridor.
Read the chapterThe Lord will fight on your behalf, and you will remain silent.”
A short sentence, and the hard half is the second one. Notice that here it is not even an order — it is a description of what will happen to you: you will be silent. For most of us, stopping costs more than continuing to try.
Read the chapterBe empty, and see that I am God. I will be exalted among the peoples, and I will be exalted upon the earth.
This translation does not say be still — it says "be empty". Which is harder and more exact: what comes before knowing is not calm, it is making room. Serenity is the result, not the entry requirement.
Read the chapterAct manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, all you who hope in the Lord.
The order and the promise sit in the reverse of what we expect: act first, and let the heart be strengthened. The strengthening is in the passive voice — it is something done to you, not something you manufacture before starting.
Read the chapterOn whatever day that I will call upon you: hear me. You will multiply virtue in my soul.
Here it reads as a request rather than a report: on whatever day I call, hear me. And notice what is asked to be increased — something inside the soul, not something outside in the circumstances.
Read the chapterThe Lord is good, and a comforter in the day of tribulation, and he knows those who hope in him.
It sits in the middle of a book about judgment, and that is exactly why it works: the goodness shows up as a comforter on the day of tribulation, not as a general climate.
Read the chapterSo, what should we say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
A rhetorical question Paul asks after thirty verses of building the argument. Out of context it is a slogan; inside it, it is a conclusion.
Read the chapterThese things I have spoken to you, so that you may have peace in me. In the world, you will have difficulties. But have confidence: I have overcome the world.”
Jesus warns that there will be difficulties and tells them to have confidence in the same breath — with no contradiction, because the reason is at the end: he has already overcome.
Read the chapterteaching them to observe all that I have ever commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age.”
The last words of Matthew’s gospel, and they are not an instruction: they are company. "Always" includes the days when it does not look like it.
Read the chapter7The Lord guards you from all evil. May the Lord guard your soul.
8May the Lord guard your entrance and your exit, from this time forward and even forever.
Your entrance and your exit — which is to say the whole day, both ends of it. This is the verse to leave by the door, in the literal sense.
Read the chapter18You need not call to mind the past, nor consider the things of antiquity.
19Behold, I am accomplishing new things. And presently, they will spring forth. With certainty, you will know them. I will make a way in the desert, and rivers in an impassible place.
The tense is immediate: the new things are being accomplished and will spring forth presently. And the line that follows is a flat guarantee rather than a question — you will know them. Which allows for the possibility that the new thing is already under way without your having noticed.
Read the chapterDavid also said to his son Solomon: “Act manfully, and be strengthened, and carry it out. You should not be afraid, and you should not be dismayed. For the Lord my God will be with you, and he will not send you away, nor will he abandon you, until you have perfected the entire work of the ministry of the house of the Lord.
A father handing his son a job far too big for him, and closing with the only guarantee that matters: until the whole work is finished. The promise covers the entire project, not only the enthusiastic beginning.
Read the chapterBecause of this, console one another and build up one another, just as you are doing.
Consoling and building up appear as mutual work, and Paul adds "just as you are doing" — praise folded into the command. It works as a method: whoever wants somebody to keep going usually starts by naming what is already being done.
Read the chapterInstead, exhort one another every day, while it is still called ‘today,’ so that none of you may become hardened through the falseness of sin.
The recommended frequency is daily, and the reason is preventive: so that nobody hardens. Encouragement here is maintenance, not emergency rescue.
Read the chapter24And let us be considerate of one another, so as to prompt ourselves to charity and to good works,
25not deserting our assembly, as some are accustomed to do, but consoling one another, and even more so as you see that the day is approaching.
The text assumes physical presence — not deserting the assembly. Biblical encouragement is rarely remote, and that is the part most easily lost.
Read the chapterCarry one another’s burdens, and so shall you fulfill the law of Christ.
Carrying somebody else’s burden is called the law of Christ, which is a strong choice of words. It does not appear as optional kindness.
Read the chapterCareful words are a honeycomb: sweet to the soul and healthful to the bones.
The comparison is a honeycomb: sweet and healthful at the same time. It is the reminder that the missing encouragement is often a thirty-second sentence somebody never said.
Read the chapterFor whatever was written, was written to teach us, so that, through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures, we might have hope.
Explains why a list of verses helps anyone at all: what was written earlier serves as consolation now. It is the New Testament defending the reading of the Old.
Read the chapterWhy are you sad, my soul? And why do you disquiet me? Hope in God, for I will still confess to him: the salvation of my countenance,
Closes the list because it is the only one where the person is talking to himself. With nobody around to encourage him, the psalmist does the job: he asks his own soul what is wrong, and then answers.
Read the chapter
Frequently asked questions
What is the best encouraging verse in the Bible?
Joshua 1:9 is the most quoted, because it packs an order and a reason into one short line: be strong, because God is with you wherever you go. Isaiah 43:2 works better for someone already in the middle of the trouble, and John 16:33 for anyone who needs to hear that the difficulty was expected.
What do I do when there is nobody to encourage me?
Psalm 41:6 — 42:5 in Bibles that follow the Hebrew numbering — is the exact text for that: the psalmist speaks to his own soul, asks the question and answers it. Psalm 137:3 names what he is after, virtue multiplied inside the soul, and Hebrews 3:13 makes it a daily job people are meant to do for each other.
How do I encourage someone going through a hard time?
Hebrews 10:24-25 puts presence before words: do not desert the assembly, be there. Proverbs 16:24 says a kind sentence works like medicine for the bones, and Galatians 6:2 is about carrying the load concretely. In all three, encouraging involves doing something and not only saying something.
Is biblical encouragement the same as positive thinking?
No. Positive thinking bets on changing your perspective; these texts bet on who is present. In John 16:33 Jesus states that there will be difficulties before telling anyone to take heart, and in Isaiah 43:2 the water and the fire are never denied — what is promised is company inside them.
A prayer to take with you
Lord, my strength ran out before the day did. I am not asking for everything to get easy; I am asking for enough heart for the next step, and for somebody to show up. Speak to me through what is written, and remind me that you go ahead of me and come along with me. Amen.