Push From God

Bible verses for strength

Isaiah 40:31 is the one people mean: those who wait for the LORD renew their strength, mount up with wings like eagles, run and not be weary. What's easy to miss is the order — the waiting comes first, and the strength is described as borrowed rather than summoned. Nearly every passage below works the same way, which is why they're more use to an exhausted person than a motivational quote is.

14 passages · World English Bible & King James · public domain

  1. but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.Isaiah 40:31 · World English Bible

    Note the order: waiting, then strength. It's described as renewed rather than produced, which is a relief if you have none left.

    King James

    But 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.

  2. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.Philippians 4:13 · World English Bible

    Read the verses either side. Paul is talking about coping with plenty and with nothing — this is about contentment under pressure, not achievement.

    King James

    I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

  3. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.Psalms 46:1 · World English Bible

    Refuge and strength in the same breath: somewhere to hide, and something to stand on.

    King James

    God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

  4. He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me.2 Corinthians 12:9 · World English Bible

    The uncomfortable, useful one. The strength turns up in the weakness rather than replacing it.

    King James

    And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

  5. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared, for today is holy to our Lord. Don’t be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”Nehemiah 8:10 · World English Bible

    Said to people weeping over how far things had gone wrong. Joy as a source of strength, not a reward for having it.

    King James

    Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.

  6. The LORD is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank him.Psalms 28:7 · World English Bible

    The order here is worth noticing: helped first, then the heart catches up, then the singing.

    King James

    The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.

  7. The LORD is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.Exodus 15:2 · World English Bible

    Sung on the far side of the Red Sea. This is what strength sounds like in hindsight.

    King James

    The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

  8. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.Ephesians 6:10 · World English Bible

    Be strong in the Lord — the strength is located somewhere other than in you, which is the whole point.

    King James

    Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

  9. The LORD, the Lord, is my strength. He makes my feet like deer’s feet, and enables me to go in high places. For the music director, on my stringed instruments.Habakkuk 3:19 · World English Bible

    The end of a book that spends most of its length complaining to God. High places, on feet that were never built for them.

    King James

    The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.

  10. My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.Psalms 73:26 · World English Bible

    Written by someone watching his own body and resolve give out, and finding the floor lower than he expected.

    King James

    My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

  11. Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong!1 Corinthians 16:13 · World English Bible

    Four short imperatives. Useful on a day when you need instructions rather than comfort.

    King James

    Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

  12. Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid or scared of them, for the LORD your God himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.”Deuteronomy 31:6 · World English Bible

    Said to a whole nation on the edge of something frightening. The strength and the company arrive together.

    King James

    Be 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.

  13. the God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect?Psalms 18:32 · World English Bible

    Two halves: the strength, and then a level place to put it. Both matter.

    King James

    It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.

  14. Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.Isaiah 41:10 · World English Bible

    Four promises stacked in one verse, none of them conditional on how you're holding up.

    King James

    Fear 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.

Borrowed strength, not manufactured strength

There's a version of this list that reads like a gym poster, and it misses what these verses actually say. Philippians 4:13 is written by a man explaining how he has learned to cope with having plenty and having nothing — it is about contentment under pressure, not achievement. 2 Corinthians 12:9 goes further and says the strength shows up precisely where the weakness is. If you came here running on empty, that's the one to sit with.

When strength means 'keep going', not 'feel powerful'

Nehemiah 8:10, Psalm 73:26 and Habakkuk 3:19 are all written by people in genuinely bad situations. None of them promise the situation improves. They promise footing — which, on the days you need this page, is usually the more useful offer.

Isaiah 40:31 ends on walking, not flying

The famous verse is usually remembered for the eagles. Read the whole sentence and notice the order it goes in:

but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.Isaiah 40:31 · World English Bible

Fly, then run, then walk. It descends. Every instinct about how to end a sentence says it should build the other way — walk, run, fly — and it does not. The last thing promised is the most ordinary one there is: walking, and not fainting.

Commentators have noticed the apparent anticlimax for a long time, and the usual reading is that it is deliberate. Soaring happens occasionally. Running happens sometimes. Most of a life is walking, and that is where the promise is aimed — at the unglamorous middle of a long thing rather than at the moment of rescue from it.

The two verses before it set it up the same way round:

Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;Isaiah 40:30 · World English Bible

The young and strong are the ones named as failing first. Then the strength arrives, and it arrives for the people verse 29 calls weak. Twice in three verses the passage puts the expected order in reverse.

“Quit you like men” is the same word God gave Joshua

1 Corinthians 16:13 is the shortest thing on this page — four imperatives and nothing else. It is also the passage where our two translations diverge furthest, and the King James half of it has become close to unreadable:

Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong!1 Corinthians 16:13 · World English Bible

The King James, under it above, says quit you like men. That is not an instruction to leave. Quit in 1611 meant to acquit yourself, to conduct yourself — a sense English has simply lost, which makes the clause one of the harder lines in the whole translation to read cold today.

Underneath it is a single Greek verb, andrizomai, built on aner, the word for a man. It occurs exactly once in the New Testament — here. Translations differ on whether to carry the gendered picture across into English or to render the sense as courage, and both are defensible readings of the same undisputed Greek. We are not going to adjudicate that; we print both and you can see it.

What is worth knowing is where else the word lives. The lexicon notes it is common in the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, and one of those places is the charge to Joshua — Joshua 1:6 reads ischye kai andrizou, be strong and be courageous. Which is to say Paul, writing to a quarrelling church in Corinth, reached for the pair of verbs that had been given to a man about to walk into a country he was frightened of:

“Be strong and courageous; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Don’t turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”Joshua 1:6-9 · World English Bible

Three times in four verses, and the last one is the one people actually carry — Joshua 1:9, which is on our pages for new beginnings and loneliness. Note what is attached to it there, because it is attached to Paul's version too by implication: the courage is commanded, and the reason given is not that you are equal to it. It is that somebody is coming with you.

Habakkuk is the honest one

The page's claim that these verses come from people in bad situations is worth showing rather than asserting. Here is what immediately precedes Habakkuk 3:19:

For even though the fig tree doesn’t flourish, nor fruit be in the vines, the labour of the olive fails, the fields yield no food, the flocks are cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!Habakkuk 3:17-18 · World English Bible

Fig tree, vines, olives, fields, flocks, herd — an itemised list of total agricultural failure, which in that economy means ruin. And then yet. The strength verse that follows is not written from safety; it is written from the far side of losing everything, and the book it closes spends most of its length arguing with God rather than praising him.

Nehemiah 8:10 works the same way. The joy of the LORD is your strength is a line people put on mugs; it was said to a crowd who were weeping, having just heard the law read aloud and understood how far things had gone wrong. It is an instruction to stop grieving and go and eat, not a description of how anyone was already feeling.

What this looks like on a phone

Push From God sends one of these when it fits what you've told it about your week — not on a schedule you have to keep up with.

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For the fourth week of this

but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

You said you're running on fumes. This one puts the waiting before the strength on purpose.

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Questions

What is the best Bible verse for strength?

Isaiah 40:31 is the most quoted: those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength, they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not faint. For strength in weakness specifically, 2 Corinthians 12:9 is the passage — my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

What does Philippians 4:13 actually mean?

In context, Paul is describing how he has learned to be content whether well fed or hungry, with plenty or in need. 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me' is about enduring both extremes, not about achieving any goal you set.

Which Bible verse helps when you feel weak?

2 Corinthians 12:9, where God's power is described as being made perfect in weakness, and Psalm 73:26, which acknowledges flesh and heart failing while calling God the strength of the heart.

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