Bible verses about courage and faith show that true bravery grows out of trusting God rather than trusting ourselves. From Daniel’s friends before the king to Peter stepping onto the water, Scripture ties bold action to confidence in God’s promises. These passages explain what faith is, why it drives out fear, and how believers across the ages found the nerve to obey.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)
Faith is defined here as confidence in what we hope for and certainty about what we cannot yet see.
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Hebrews 11:6 (KJV)
Without faith it is impossible to please God, since we must believe he exists and rewards those who seek him.
And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Hebrews 11:32-34 (KJV)
Hebrews lists people whose faith turned weakness into strength and made them bold in hard trials.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
Daniel 3:16-18 (KJV)
Three young men refuse to bow to an idol, trusting God to save them, and staying faithful even if he does not.
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
Joshua 1:7 (KJV)
Courage for Joshua meant carefully obeying God’s law without turning aside to the right or left.
Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
1 Corinthians 16:13 (KJV)
Paul ties courage to faith: watch, stand fast in the faith, and be strong.
As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.
Mark 5:36 (KJV)
Jesus tells a frightened father, Be not afraid, only believe.
But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
Matthew 14:27-31 (KJV)
Peter walks on water while his eyes are on Jesus and sinks when fear replaces faith.
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31 (KJV)
Faith that God is for us removes the power of anyone who stands against us.
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
Acts 4:13 (KJV)
Leaders marvel at the boldness of Peter and John, ordinary men who had been with Jesus.
And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:29-31 (KJV)
Facing threats, the early church prays for boldness, and God fills them to speak his word.
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Hebrews 13:5-6 (KJV)
Because God promised never to leave us, we can boldly say the Lord is our helper.
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
1 John 5:4 (KJV)
John teaches that faith is the victory that overcomes the world.
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Ephesians 6:16 (KJV)
Faith works like a shield that quenches the fiery darts of the wicked one.
(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
2 Corinthians 5:7 (KJV)
Believers walk by faith and not by sight, trusting God beyond what they can see.
For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
Esther 4:14-16 (KJV)
Esther risks her life to approach the king, saying, If I perish, I perish.
The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
Proverbs 28:1 (KJV)
The righteous are described as bold as a lion, unlike the wicked who flee from nothing.
Joshua 1:9’s command to be courageous is grounded directly in the belief that “the LORD thy God is with thee.”
Two nearby collections worth opening next are Bible Verses For God's Peace and Bible Verses For Prayer and Protection.
The verses on this page come from the King James Version; the complete text is freely available at Blue Letter Bible.
Bible Verses About Faith and Trust and Bible Verses About Romantic Love explore related themes.
Readers of this page often go on to Bible Verses About Depression or Bible Verses About Comfort.
You might also turn to Bible Verses About Hope and Bible Verses About Business.
This subject overlaps with Bible Verses About Being Strong and with Bible Verses For Courage and Faith.
If the KJV wording feels unfamiliar, Bible Gateway lets you set it beside a modern translation.
To trace a verse through the rest of Scripture, the cross-references on Bible Hub are useful.
Courage and faith are connected throughout Scripture, with courage grounded in genuine belief, not bravado.
Scripture describes courage and faith in shepherds and kings, in the very young and the very old, in people with significant public standing and people with none at all. This wide range is worth remembering if you do not see yourself reflected in the more commonly cited examples. Genuine courage and faith are not reserved for people with particular status, confidence, or visible qualification — they appear across an unusually broad range of circumstances and people throughout the text.
Whatever your own circumstances currently look like, this range offers real precedent that courage and faith are genuinely available to you as you actually are, not only to a narrower category of especially qualified people.
Faith described in Scripture tends to grow through active exercise — stepping out, acting on what is believed — more than through passive waiting for it to feel fully developed before acting. If your own faith currently feels underdeveloped or uncertain, this pattern suggests that acting on the faith you currently have, however small, may be part of how it actually grows, rather than waiting until it feels complete before taking any action at all.
The biblical accounts of courage and faith do not present these qualities as arriving smoothly or without genuine internal struggle. Real doubt, real fear, and real hesitation are recorded honestly alongside the courage and faith eventually demonstrated. If your own experience of trying to be courageous and faithful includes real internal struggle, that struggle is consistent with, not contrary to, the honest pattern Scripture itself records.
Neither courage nor faith are described in Scripture as purely solitary pursuits — both are often sustained and strengthened through genuine community, shared encouragement, and mutual accountability. If you are trying to build either quality entirely in isolation, this pattern suggests seeking out others who can walk alongside you, not as an optional addition but as part of how these qualities are meant to be cultivated.
Courage and faith, read together as this list presents them, offer a fuller picture than either alone — active step paired with genuine trust, immediate action paired with confidence in what has not yet been seen. Whatever your current situation actually requires, these verses are meant to speak to both dimensions together.
Whatever specific situation currently calls for both courage and faith from you, these verses are meant to be read as genuine, direct promise for your actual life, not distant theology for someone else’s easier circumstances.
Return to this list as often as fear or doubt resurfaces, letting each return strengthen both qualities together rather than treating them as separate, unrelated needs.
Whatever tomorrow requires, this same courage and faith remain available, offered fresh again rather than expected to already be spent from today.
Rest in that today, exactly as things are.
Share this list with someone else who is facing their own moment of needing both courage and faith, letting your own encouragement become part of theirs.
You do not have to have it all figured out to begin.
Just the next honest step.
That itself is more than enough for where you stand right now, at this exact moment, before this exact decision.
Abraham’s story begins with a command and very little detail. God told him to leave his country and his father’s house for “a land that I will shew thee” (Genesis 12:1). Hebrews 11:8 says he “went out, not knowing whither he went.” Few passages describe the combination so plainly: the courage was in the going, and the faith was in the One who called.
His journey was not flawless. Twice he passed off Sarah as his sister out of fear (Genesis 12 and 20), and he and Sarah tried to hurry the promise through Hagar. Yet Romans 4:20 says he “staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.” Scripture is honest about his failures and still celebrates his trust.
The hardest test came in Genesis 22, when God asked for Isaac. Hebrews 11:19 explains that Abraham accounted that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead. This account shows that mature faith reasons from God’s character: if God promised, God would provide. Abraham named the place Jehovah-jireh, meaning the Lord will provide (Genesis 22:14).
Abraham was seventy-five when he left Haran (Genesis 12:4) and a hundred when Isaac was born (Genesis 21:5). Courage is not only a single bold act; it is also the patience to keep trusting when nothing seems to change. Hebrews 6:12 speaks of those who “through faith and patience inherit the promises,” a reminder that endurance belongs beside boldness.
Acts reads like a record of ordinary believers learning to trust God under pressure. Beyond the well-known prayer for boldness in chapter 4, the rest of the book offers more passages worth studying slowly.
The pattern is consistent. Each believer’s boldness rested on something God had said or done, whether a promise, a vision or the resurrection itself. These verses suggest that the more clearly we hear God’s word, the steadier we become when circumstances shake.
Some assume that great faith means ignoring danger or refusing wise precautions. Scripture paints a more careful picture, and several Bible verses about courage and faith make the distinction clear.
When Satan urged Jesus to throw Himself from the pinnacle of the temple and trust angels to catch Him, Jesus answered, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Matthew 4:7). Testing God with a staged risk is not faith. Nehemiah, rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls under threat, wrote, “Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night” (Nehemiah 4:9). Prayer and planning stood side by side.
Jesus spoke of counting the cost before building a tower (Luke 14:28), so careful planning is not a lack of trust. A useful question is whether you are avoiding something God has clearly asked of you, or simply making a sensible choice about how to do it. Fear refuses obedience; wisdom decides how to obey well. Proverbs 15:22 notes that purposes are established “in the multitude of counsellors,” so talking decisions through with mature believers helps keep both extremes in check.
Among these Bible verses about courage and faith, none praise foolishness. They praise trust that obeys, even when obedience is costly.
These questions help groups talk honestly about Bible verses about courage and faith. They suit a Bible study, a family devotion or a personal journal. Choose a few and give people time to think before anyone answers.
For further study on how trust matures over time, see Scripture on growing in faith, and for passages about trusting God in painful seasons, read verses on faith in hard times.
Groups sometimes close by reading the Bible verses about courage and faith aloud together, with each person reading one passage. Hearing Scripture in several voices is a simple reminder that no one walks by faith alone.
Jairus was a man of standing, one of the synagogue rulers, and he fell at Jesus’ feet in front of a crowd, which cost him some pride. His daughter, twelve years old, was dying. Then Jesus stopped to speak with a woman who had touched his cloak, and while the delay dragged on, messengers arrived from Jairus’ house: ‘Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?’ (Mark 5:35).
Right there, with the news still hanging in the air, Jesus says the line this page quotes: ‘Be not afraid, only believe’ (Mark 5:36). Try to hear it from the father’s side. He had just been told the worst, by people who had no reason to lie. What Jesus asks is not a cheerful opinion about the odds. It is to keep walking toward his own front door.
What I notice is that nothing in the story gives Jairus a strategy. He is not handed a formula for managing dread. He simply continues alongside the one who said it, through a house full of mourners who laughed at the idea of hope. For anyone who has taken a late-night phone call, that is a sturdier picture than a list of tips. Faith here looks like staying in step with Jesus when everyone else has already stopped.
Matthew 14 begins with a boat caught in a headwind in the small hours before dawn, the disciples straining at the oars and making no headway. Jesus comes to them walking on the sea, and they cry out in terror, thinking he is a ghost. His first words are close to the ones we have already seen: ‘Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid’ (Matthew 14:27).
Peter answers with that bold, impulsive request of his, and the story keeps going until he is actually standing on the waves. Then the text says he saw the wind boisterous, and began to sink (Matthew 14:30). Look at what changed. The wind had been blowing all along. What shifted was where his attention rested.
Jesus catches him at once, with an outstretched hand, and says: ‘O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’ There is no lecture before the rescue. I find that kind to read. Anyone who has stepped out on a risky decision and felt their stomach drop can see themselves in Peter, and also in the hand that did not wait for a better performance. Nerve and faith get weak, sometimes. The Lord’s grip does not.
Esther lived in Persia, in the palace of King Ahasuerus, and she had kept her Jewish background quiet. When Haman’s decree threatened her people with destruction, her cousin Mordecai urged her to speak. Her first answer is realistic, not heroic: anyone who entered the inner court uninvited could be put to death unless the king held out the golden sceptre, and she had not been called for thirty days (Esther 4:11).
Mordecai’s reply is blunt. If she kept silent, relief would come from another place, but she and her family would not be spared. Then he asks the question people have repeated for centuries: ‘who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?’ (Esther 4:14). He does not claim to know God’s plan. He only suggests she may be standing in it.
Esther’s decision comes with a plan, three days of fasting with her maids and her people, and then the line, ‘if I perish, I perish’ (Esther 4:16). That is courage with its eyes open and its fears admitted. It also stands out that God is never named in the book, yet his timing runs through it. Faith sometimes acts without a signed guarantee in hand.
Paul drops a short phrase into 2 Corinthians 5:7: ‘For we walk by faith, not by sight.’ Out of context it is often read as advice to ignore evidence, to think positively whatever the facts show. The surrounding paragraph says something different. Paul has just been talking about the body being like a tent that wears out, and about the hope of a lasting home with the Lord.
So sight, here, means a limited view. We see the tent flapping in the weather, the diagnosis, the empty account, the stalled career. Faith adds a second set of facts that eyes cannot reach, such as that the Lord is near and that the story does not end at the funeral. Paul still lists real hardships elsewhere in the same letter and never pretends they were imaginary.
Walking is also a plain kind of verb. Nobody sprints by faith in this verse. You take the next step on the road you can see while trusting something about the road you cannot. Someone driving at night sees only as far as the headlights, yet still reaches a city a hundred miles away. The beams reveal little, and the trip still gets done.
The writer of Hebrews 13 is giving practical orders to a congregation that had already lost property and some freedom for their faith. In verse 5 he turns from money to a promise quoted from the older Scriptures: ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’ The same promise was spoken to Joshua, and to Jacob before him in a different form, so these early Christians were handed something with a long history.
From it comes the confidence of verse 6: ‘The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.’ Read how it is built. First comes the Helper, then the decision about fear. The fear is not denied. It is sized against who stands next to the person.
That order matters in a workplace where you may be ridiculed, or a family where your belief is not welcome. Many people try to build confidence first and hope the Helper turns up afterward. The verse works the other direction. A short prayer might sound like this: Lord, I am frightened of how this will go, but you have said you will not leave. Stay close this afternoon, and give me words when I am out of them.
Keep exploring with these related pages: Bible Verses About Faith and Courage, Bible Verses For Faith and Courage, Bible Verses For Courage and Faith, Bible Verses For Faith in God and Bible Verses For Prayer and Faith.
For deeper study, Bible Gateway, Bible Hub and Bible Study Tools are all free to use.
Joshua 1:9's command to be courageous is grounded directly in the belief that "the LORD thy God is with thee."
This page brings together 16 King James Version references about courage and Faith, drawn from 9 different books of the Bible.
Yes. The verses about courage and Faith gathered here include passages from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, such as Joshua 1:9 and Hebrews 11:8.
Joshua 1:9 is one of the verses about courage and Faith referenced in this collection, alongside Genesis 12:1.
Yes, the verses referenced on this page, including Joshua 1:9, are quoted according to the King James Version (KJV), and are suitable for daily reading, memorization, or devotional use.
