Bible verses about
Bible Verses About Encouragement
Encouragement is a word that has gone soft. It sounds like a compliment now, or a card.
In Scripture it is closer to putting courage into someone — a transfer, usually costly, usually from one person to another. Which is why so many of these verses are addressed not to the person who is struggling but to the people around her.
Twelve passages below, quoted in full in both translations. If you came looking for something to hold onto, several of these will do; if you came looking for something to send, that is what most of them were written for.
12 verses for when you need them
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:9 ESVHave not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
Joshua 1:9 KJVSaid to Joshua as he took over from Moses — an impossible act to follow, with a war ahead of him. Notice it is an order, not encouragement in the modern sense, and the reason given is not his competence but God's presence.
fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10 ESVFear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Isaiah 41:10 KJVFear not, for I am with thee. Three verbs follow and all of them are his: strengthen, help, uphold. If you are the sort of person who reads a promise and immediately looks for her part in it, this verse does not give you one.
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESVWherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 KJVComfort yourselves together, and edify one another. The verse assumes encouragement is something a community does to itself rather than something an individual summons — and the tense is ongoing.
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Hebrews 3:13 ESVBut exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Hebrews 3:13 KJVExhort one another daily. The frequency is the striking part: not when someone is obviously struggling but every day, on the grounds that discouragement hardens quietly and early.
Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
Deuteronomy 31:6 ESVBe strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Deuteronomy 31:6 KJVMoses, near the end of his life, to a nation about to cross without him. The same command as Joshua 1:9 and the same reason — twice, at the hardest transition in the story, the argument is company rather than capability.
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,
Romans 15:5 ESVNow the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
Romans 15:5 KJVThe God of patience and consolation — a title that puts both qualities on his side of the relationship. Paul writes it as a prayer, which quietly concedes that the like-mindedness he wants is not automatic.
Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD!
Psalm 31:24 ESVBe of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.
Psalm 31:24 KJVThe strengthening follows the courage rather than preceding it. You are not asked to feel equipped first, which is inconvenient if you were waiting to feel ready before you started.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:24-25 ESVAnd let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25 KJVConsider one another to provoke unto love. Provoke is a deliberate word — the encouragement described here is active and slightly disruptive, not merely supportive, and it is tied to actually turning up.
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31 ESVBut they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31 KJVThe famous one, and the condition attached is waiting — the least energetic verb in the passage and the only one asked of you. The verses just before say the young and fit fall exhausted, which is what makes this a promise rather than a pep talk.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
2 Corinthians 4:16 ESVFor which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
2 Corinthians 4:16 KJVThe outward perishing is conceded, plainly. Paul is not arguing that the tiredness is imaginary; he is claiming that something else is being renewed at the same time, day by day.
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6 ESVBeing confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Philippians 1:6 KJVThe work in view is the person herself, not her project. And the completion date is well past her death, which is either discouraging or a considerable relief depending on how you were measuring progress.
Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!
Psalm 27:14 ESVWait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
Psalm 27:14 KJVThe instruction is repeated at both ends of the verse, and it is wait. Courage sits in the middle of it. Whatever this is, it is not the courage of the woman who moves first.
Two things run through this list and they point in different directions.
The first is that God is repeatedly named as the source — the God of patience and consolation, the one who strengthens and upholds, the one who goes before you and does not fail.
The second is that the job is handed to people. Comfort yourselves together. Exhort one another daily. Consider one another to provoke unto love. Encouragement in Scripture is overwhelmingly something Christians are told to do for each other, on a schedule, out loud.
Which means if you are running low, the instruction is not only to look up. It is also, quite practically, to tell someone — because the verses assume the encouragement arrives through a person who knows you are struggling.
And if you are not the one running low today, Hebrews 3:13 has a word in it worth noticing: daily. Not when it occurs to you.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version, which is in the public domain. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.