Favourite Bible verses

[EdithSimcox]

I sometimes use a bible verse as a sort-of meditation or 'gateway' to contemplative prayer. Yesterday it was "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (Isaiah 40:31)

Someone lovely on another thread said it was one of their favourites, which made me wonder if other Christians have favourite verses, and what they are...?

(I realise it will tempting for some non-Christians to post shockers from the OT; please resist; thank you. )

[LucyMouse]

You can't go wrong with Jeremiah 29v11 "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
I also love the eagle wings OP :)

[niminypiminy]

I love Psalm 36 v 9:

'For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see the light.'

There are loads more, but I've got to go and get a train.

[QofF]

"He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;he causes me to stand on the heights."psalm 18:33. love it

[niminypiminy]

John 20.16: Jesus said to her, 'Mary!' She turned and said to him in Hebrew, 'Rabbouni!

This verse from Jeremiah has been personally very important to me:
Thus says the Lord: The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness, when Israel sought for rest (Jer 31.2)

and also John 4.15: The woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.'

[gabsdot45]

Psalms 46:10
10 Be still, and know that I am God:

That verse has kept me sane many times

[Monkeyinshoes]

I really like this one that came up as verse of the day on a bible app I use.

I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
??Psalm? ?16:8? ?NIV??

[EdithSimcox]

Lovely all round.

Interesting choices, niminy, most of the suggestions so far have been obviously inspirational (especially the psalm verses). Yours are a little more oblique. Would you like to explain why they are important to you (if you don't mind/ not too personal)?

[Lessstressedhemum]

Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.

[FishWithABicycle]

If I take the wings of the morning, or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me,
and thy right hand shall hold me.
psalm 139

[niminypiminy]

Sorry about slow reply, I've been away for a few days.

So, the reasons for my choices. The exchange between Mary and Jesus is the climax of John's account of the discovery of the resurrection. I love the simplicity of the exchange: all Jesus has to do is simply to say 'Mary', to speak her name, to call her. It makes me think about how at those most supremely joyful moments, you don't say a lot (when I had my children, both times all I could say when I first saw them was 'baby!'). Everything is there in this encounter - joy, love, hope - and it is a woman who is the first person to see, to recognise and to be recognised by the risen Jesus. 'Mary!' 'Rabbouni!'

The next one comes from a hard time in my life. Someone advised me to look at and pray with Jeremiah 29.11 (you know the plans I have for you), but it seemed too pat, and I couldn't make sense of it. So (rather ambitiously) I decided to read the whole of Jeremiah to put the letter from Jeremiah in context. This verse comes from after this, and is about the exiles journeying after the sacking of Jerusalem. It takes them back to the wilderness years and to the great story of Israel. The people on that journey had escaped death, and they were journeying to they knew not what, with only what they could carry. Yet they found grace in the wilderness. The grace was there, waiting for them, and they had to go into the wilderness to find it, the hard grace that comes only when we have to give up all we thought we cherished. And that passage helped me to see that the grace in the wilderness, when I had to give up a dream that was very dear to me, was also there for me, and that that it was waiting for me - would always be waiting for me.

Finally, the passage from John 4 has been very important in my faith journey. As someone who became a Christian after being brought up and spending most of my life as an atheist I feel kinship with the Samaritan woman - an outsider to the people of Israel - and her saying to Jesus 'sir, give me this water' reminds me of my own assent to God, my own recognition that I was thirsty for something, and the moment when I, too, asked for water. And that story continues to resonate in my life and to have new meanings (as all these passages do) the more I pray through and meditate on them.

[EdithSimcox]

Thanks niminy . It's fun this faith journey stuff.

[jeee]

Ecclesiastes 3 King James Version

3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

You can be a rampant atheist and still think that these words are lovely. Although they're used so often that they've passed into cliche-dom.

[madhairday]

Lovely thread :)

I like so many. On phone so can't c and p but love Proverbs 3 v 5: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.'

[madhairday]

Also love Ephesians 3:

bible.com/111/eph.3.14-21.niv For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

[EdithSimcox]

Matthew 14:29-31 ‘Come,’ he said.Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’

I'm not very good with miracles generally, and I'm pretty doubting too, so this passage is really thought provoking for me. Someone told me today that it means don't tell Jesus how big the storm is; tell the storm how big Jesus is. Since Jesus is if not the origin of my current storm then at least its most proximate cause that's quite an interesting thought too.

[niminypiminy]

In his book (which I really recommend) The Meaning of the Miracles Jeffrey John says the question we need to ask is 'what do the miracle stories tell us about God, and about us in relation to God?'. So he says that this miracle is about attesting to Jesus's divinity. When the disciples see Jesus walking towards them on the lake he says 'It is I' - another way of translating the Greek is 'it is I am' -- which is what Yahweh says when he appears to Moses. The OT is full statements about the terror of the sea and how only Yahweh can control it. So this is about how Jesus is telling them by his actions and by his words who he is. And Peter - like the early Christians - is trying to walk through the storm and can only be held up and and saved by God in Jesus Christ. Jeffey John gives his own lovely prayer based on this passage:
Give us Lord the grace to walk by faith,
through every storm of life to keep our eyes on you.
And when we fail to see, or start to sink,
stretch out your hand to raise us up.
So may we learn to hold to you through good or ill,
until we come to the haven where we would be,
in everlasting joy and peace.

[EdithSimcox]

MN needs a like button

[nickelbabe]

niminy that mary raboni passage is my favourite too.
We had to choose a quote for our home group a couple of weeks ago and I chose that one.
I did say it was a bit cliche, but exactly what you said about it being the most amazing and joyful experience in the whole world ever. (Especially after she was so worried and scared about where he'd been taken)

[cheapskatemum]

These are all so lovely. My favourite verses come and go, depending on the life experiences I'm going through at the time. For a long while, whilst our church was in complete turmoil, I clung to Isaiah 55 (I think) "My ways are higher than your ways" - probably a paraphrase, but I haven't got time to check atm. It felt good to know that God was in control & had a plan, even if we didn't have a clue what it was!

More later, I'm off to watch footie.

[DoraDymant]

1 John 4:16: God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

[FrancisdeSales]

If you love me you will keep my commandments.

And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate,
to be with you forever.

This is the Spirit of truth
whom the world cannot receive,
because it neither sees him
nor knows him.

You know him,
because he abides with you,
and he will be in you.

John 14:15-17

[EdithSimcox]

Resurrecting this thread because #40Acts told me to...

A new favourite:

Proverbs 18:24
Some friends play at friendship but a true friend sticks closer than one’s nearest kin.

[icklekid]

Here's mine
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV

today's #40acts was to share a favourite verse so thanks for the encouragement!

[Lessstressedhemum]

Psalm 40 vv1ff
I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the skimy pit, out of the !ud and mire
He set my feet upon the rock and gave me a solid place to stand
He put a new song into my mouth.

This never fails to remind me that there is always light at the end of the tunnel.