There are circumstances that happen in our lives that are so heavy that we do not want to talk about them with friends or family. For me, the first time this ever happened was when I discovered that my boyfriend of a few months was an alcoholic and had checked himself into rehab. I was shocked, confused, and scared. I was 25 and up until that point I had never dealt with alcoholism and the heaviness of the situation was bigger than I could process.
I’d been a believer for many years before that point but this was the first time that I actually truly turned to lean solely on God. I didn’t want advice from friends or family at first because I knew everyone would have opinions about how to handle what was happening, and I wasn’t sure how I felt yet. All I knew to do was to turn to God, scripture, and prayer to seek guidance from Him for what was next. That was a big moment for God and I and was a giant growth point in my faith journey.
While I 100% believe that God speaks to us through the counsel of others, there are certainly moments in life where we need to first process alone with God and there is such comfort in knowing that we can flip to any page in the Bible and find words of hope for exactly the thing we’re going through. Over the last several years, I’ve been collecting go-to verses for different situations of hope, sadness, grief, confusion, and even just simple words to live by. These words are timeless, Holy, and rooted in truth. They are always a place to come back to time and time again.
Here are the 10 verses that help me go the distance in this beautiful, crazy journey we call life:
A verse to live by.
Do everything in love.
A verse to remind us how important it is to live in community.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the day approaching.
A verse rooted in hope that helps us remember Jesus has gone before us on our behalf.
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf.
A verse for encouragement when we doubt the season that God has us in.
And who knows whether you have not come to the Kingdom for such a time as this?
A verse for when the tragedies in our world are too hard and confusing to understand.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
A verse to remind us that Jesus enters into grief along with us.
Jesus wept.
A verse to remind us that even if our circumstances do not turn out how we hoped for, God is still good.
If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.
A verse to remind us that God has gone before us, is fighting for us, and will continue to carry us no matter what kind of season of wilderness we find ourselves in.
The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.
A verse of hope, that through seasons of grief, hope and compassion will still come.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.
A verse to remind us that Jesus’ miracles are unlimited.
Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
