When my parents helped move me into my apartment room as a new college student, they left me stocked with groceries, clean towels, and everything put away perfectly. Then my mom handed me the most thoughtful gift: a small hot pink envelope filled with notecards of Bible verses printed on them. The verses were all life-giving and hope-filled. Little did I know, a few months later I would be sitting on my bed, weeping as I read through the scriptures. I was a struggling college student, and these verses filled me with the strength I needed.
Since then I have fought my share of battles and have faced oppression, fear, and defeat. I have stared at questions with no answers and problems with no solutions. But one thing has remained: my almighty, incomparable, life-saving Jesus. And His Word has brought me hope, comfort, strength, and salvation in my darkest moments. My mind has stored up weapons from that little hot pink envelope. Those same scriptures are highlighted in my Bible or lettered in art around my home. Those powerful words that kept me as a lonely college student have kept me as a young adult, and as a newlywed, and then as a young mother. They have kept me through every question and every fear. Over the years I’ve added scripture after scripture to my arsenal, and I am so thankful for the well of verses I can draw from when I need just a little bit more of Him.
Today I’m sharing some of these scriptures that have strengthened me over the years. If you’ve been struggling recently, take heart. Let His Word flow over you and soak in His goodness and His promises. Or, if you know of someone going through a tough time or facing a new season, maybe you can make your own little hot pink envelope. Fill it up with notecards covered in the Word, hand it to someone, and let them know that you’re fighting alongside them. My little envelope is in my nightstand, thirteen years later. It’s wrinkled and some of the scriptures are missing as I took them out and used them for various things. But it has been a constant reminder that all that I need is one Word away.
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Thou wilt keep them in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Isaiah 26:3
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7
Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord. Psalm 144:15
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Psalm 91
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and deliverereth them. Psalm 34:7
The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. Zephaniah 3:17
Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. Isaiah 30:18
Our soul waiteth for the Lord: He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name. Psalm 33:20-21
Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16
In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul. Psalm 94:19
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. Lamentations 3:21-24
