Bible-Religion.com

Since I started reading the bible, I’ve always kept a list of encouraging bible verses. I use this list, from Genesis through Revelation, to refresh my comprehension and enlightenment when ever I read a verse that inspires me to connect the proverbial dots…

Today we can always hop on-line and get a plethora of information on any subject. But being able to tell the good from bad or the right from wrong isn’t always as easy as we might think.

The subject of this post is: What Encouraging Bible Verses Are Your Favorites? This question came from a reader of the Bible-Religion.com blog last week.

In all fairness I think  each one of us have different bible verses that encourage us.  However, I will share some of my favorite verses with all of you here, in no particular order of preference:
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And this is what He says to all humanity:
‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom;
to forsake evil is real understanding.’”
Job 28:28 NLT

“But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
1 John 4:8 NLT

The Bible says, “…those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life is begun!”
2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

“Now turn from your sins and turn to God, so you can be cleansed of your sins.”
Acts 3:19 NLT

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
Philippians 4:6 NLT

May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
2 Peter 1:2 NLT

“You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”
Matthew 21:22 NLT

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God.
Romans 12:19 NLT

There is no peace for the wicked,”says my God.
Isaiah 57:21 NLT

For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.
1 John 5:4 NLT

But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.
2 Thessalonians 3:3 NLT

Be stewards of the earth. “The land itself must observe a Sabbath rest”
Leviticus 25:2 NLT

For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile
Romans 1:16 NLT

I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws.
Psalm 119:30 NIV

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:14 NIV

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
James 1:22 NIV
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If you are not keeping your own list of encouraging bible verses and would like to start one, perhaps you will be inspired by these favorite verses of the bible at the New Living Translation.com! This will allow you to view the collection of favorite verses by simply selecting a book from the bible to view a list of all the favorite verses from each book.

I will sometimes even take the verse and go to Biblegateway.com and look it up in multiple versions, up to five at a time, that can give me a different perspective on the verse I am interested in.

What encouraging bible verses are your favorites?
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Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
Philippians 4:6 NIV/NLT/NKJV

ometimes God allows us to hit the bottom in order to discover that He’s the rock at the bottom. Gideon faced an army of 135,000 troops with just 32,000 of his own soldiers. And 22,000 of them left the battlefield and went home when he offered them the chance. Do the math. Gideon’s thinking, “there’s no way we can win!”

Then God explains: “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, “My own power has delivered me’” (Judges 7:2 NAS/NLT). There it is again, the age-old battle of ego that we all fight daily. It is why the Lord’s Prayer ends with: “Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen” (Matthew 6:13 KJV/NLT).

Where does our power come from? God! Who should the glory for our accomplishments go to? God! How long does this arrangement last? Forever!

God had to break Jacob of self-sufficiency so the “Israel” within him could come out. Sometimes God has to take you down before He can rise you up. Moses was called the meekest man on earth. But it took forty years of living like a shepherd in the wilderness to detox him of pride and get him submitted to God. Only then was he ready to stand before Pharaoh and perform miracles that demonstrated God’s power - and vindicated Moses!

Brokenness doesn’t mean being a wimp, suffering from an inferiority complex or having a case of low self-esteem. No, brokenness means praying, “Lord if this job is going to get done and done right, You’re going to have to do it through me, so my trust is in You.”

e don’t always know the reason for our trials, but God revealed to Paul the reason for his “thorn in the flesh.” It was to keep him from being “exalted” (see 2 Corinthians 12:7 KJV/NLT). success can be intoxicating, and intoxicated people aren’t known for being too bright or trustworthy!

What happens when you get a thorn in your flesh? It hurts and you’ll let everything else go while you focus on removing it. Three times Paul prayed for God to remove the thorn, but God had another plan. You see, God is at His strongest when we are at our weakest. When Paul discovered that God’s power in his life was tied to the thorn that afflicted him, he responded, “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities… For whenever I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10 NRS/NLT). In other words, “If it’s for my good, bring it on, Lord!”

If you have a thorny person in your life from whom you’ve prayed to be delivered and it hasn’t happened, maybe God wants you to experience His grace and power through dealing with that person. But you won’t experience this until you move from pain to praise.

The Bible speaks about “the sacrifice of praise to God” (Hebrews 13:15 KJV/NLT). A sacrifice means that something has to die on somebody’s altar. So if you want to experience God’s grace and power in your life, you must be willing to die to self-interest, ego, and independence. There is nothing wrong with asking God to remove your thorn. But when your prayer for deliverance turns to praise, you’re on your way to receiving His power, because God is giving you grace.
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The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.
Psalm 51:17 (NIV/NLT)

The Bible may look like one book, but it is actually sixty-six rolled into one. Thirty-nine books make up what we call the Old Testament, and twenty-seven make up the New Testament.  God used many authors–as many as forty–over a time-period of many centuries to write the sixty-six books of the Bible.  This makes each book unique.

The first five books of the Bible are known as the Pentateuch or “Five Books of Moses”.  The Laws of God are known as the Ten Commandments.

But even though each book has its own style and character, each one contributes to God’s life-changing message.  What is that message? Through the Bible, God makes it clear that he loves us and has a plan to save us from the destructive power of sin.

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May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
2 Peter 1:2 NLT

lap. Clap. Clap…  Hello and welcome to the “Bible-Religion.com” blog.  My name is Steve (About).  Here’s where you’ll find a relaxed and open community of diverse people discussing everything about The Bible, Religion and Christianity – from those looking for answers about concerns – to Bible trivia (yes, there are wildly interesting trivial facts in each book of the Bible, starting with Genesis of course).

My inspiration, to put this weblog online, is part of my wanting to give back as well as to provide a source of reference to the numerous people wanting to know about the Bible, Religion and Christianity.

The Resources used here are primarily from the current Bible I read daily, which is the TruthQuest Inductive Student Bible (TQ/ISB), the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT), unless noted otherwise, see the copyright page.  The New Living Translation (NLT) is by far the easiest Bible to read and understand that I have come across.

The “Categories” list will continue to grow and will be based on the most requested topics of discussion by those wanting to know more about Christianity.  The “Links of Interest”  and the “Blogs To Read”, listed in the sidebar, are of an eclectic nature to provide a diverse and well-rounded world of information on the Bible and the message within.

In addition, I welcome those of you who would like to contribute your own content, topics or even become a guest blogger for Bible-Religion.com.  Please refer to the Contributors page to find out how.

So bookmark this blog (Ctrl+D), email to a friend/colleague or add our RSS feed, and let’s pump up the volume here at “Bible-Religion.com”.  And of course, I would love getting your feedback on the Bible and this blog — and what you want to see discussed in the future here.

Enjoy friends…

Steve
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The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness.  And the Spirit of God was hovering over its surface.
Genesis 1:2 (TQ/ISB) NLT