These Bible Verses About Courage and Strength show that biblical courage is not self-confidence but trust in a God who goes with His people. From Joshua preparing to lead Israel to Paul learning that grace is enough in weakness, Scripture ties bravery to God’s presence and power. They teach where lasting strength comes from and how believers can stand firm when they feel weak.
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
Joshua 1:9 (KJV)
God commands Joshua to be strong and courageous because He will be with him wherever he goes.
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.
Deuteronomy 31:6 (KJV)
Moses tells Israel to be strong and not fear, since the Lord goes with them and will not forsake them.
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 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.
Isaiah 40:29-31 (KJV)
God gives power to the faint, and those who wait on Him mount up with wings as eagles.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:13 (KJV)
Paul says he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him.
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalms 27:1 (KJV)
With the Lord as the strength of his life, David asks of whom he should be afraid.
Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.
Psalms 31:24 (KJV)
Those who hope in the Lord are told to be of good courage, and He will strengthen their heart.
Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
1 Corinthians 16:13 (KJV)
Paul urges believers to watch, stand fast in the faith, and be strong.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Ephesians 6:10-11 (KJV)
We are to be strong in the Lord and put on the whole armour of God.
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 (KJV)
God has given us a spirit of power, love and a sound mind rather than fear.
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.
Isaiah 41:10 (KJV)
Courage rests on God’s promise to be with us, strengthen us and uphold us.
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.
Psalms 28:7 (KJV)
The Lord is my strength and shield, and my heart trusts in Him and is helped.
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. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (KJV)
When we are weak, God’s strength is made perfect, so Paul can say that then he is strong.
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.
Nehemiah 8:10 (KJV)
Nehemiah tells the people that the joy of the Lord is their strength.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Psalms 46:1 (KJV)
God is our refuge and strength, always present in trouble.
And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord.
1 Chronicles 28:20 (KJV)
David charges Solomon to be strong and courageous in building the temple, for God will not fail him.
Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. 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 1:6-7 (KJV)
Joshua’s courage is linked to carefully obeying God’s law without turning aside.
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.
Habakkuk 3:19 (KJV)
The Lord God is my strength, the prophet says, making my feet like hinds’ feet on high places.
Joshua 1:9’s command pairs strength and courage directly, both grounded in God’s promised presence.
Readers of this page often go on to Bible Verses For Finding Peace or Bible Verses For Prayer and Peace.
The verses on this page come from the King James Version; the complete text is freely available at Blue Letter Bible.
Bible Verses About Family Unity and Bible Verses About True Love explore related themes.
If you want to keep reading, Bible Verses About Stress and Bible Verses About Protection sit close to this topic.
Bible Verses For Motivation and Bible Verses About Career pick up threads that run through these verses.
For a related angle, see Bible Verses About Courage and Faith or Bible Verses For Courage and Strength.
To see how other translations render these lines, look them up on Bible Gateway.
Bible Hub offers commentary and cross-references for each verse.
Courage and strength are paired throughout Scripture, both grounded in the same promise of God’s presence.
Scripture describes courage and strength in warriors and in quiet homemakers, in young shepherds and in aging leaders — a wide range of people and circumstances, not a single narrow template. This range is worth remembering if your own version of courage and strength does not resemble a more common or visible model. Genuine courage and strength take many forms throughout Scripture, not one fixed appearance.
Whatever your own circumstances currently look like, this range offers real precedent that courage and strength are genuinely available to you exactly as you are, not only to a narrower category of especially qualified people.
Several figures described as courageous and strong in Scripture acted without full certainty about outcomes — moving forward despite genuine uncertainty, not because every question had already been resolved. If you are waiting for complete certainty before acting courageously, this pattern suggests that genuine courage and strength are available even amid real uncertainty, not only once every doubt has been eliminated.
Courage and strength, read together as this list presents them, offer a fuller picture than either alone — active step paired with sustaining capacity, immediate resolve paired with lasting endurance. Whatever your current situation actually requires, these verses are meant to speak to both dimensions together, not only one at the expense of the other.
Neither courage nor strength are described in Scripture as purely solitary achievements — both are often sustained through genuine community, honest encouragement, and mutual support. 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 and maintained over time.
Whatever specific situation currently calls for both courage and strength from you, these verses are meant to be read as direct address to that actual circumstance, not distant encouragement for someone else’s easier situation. Read them again with your specific situation named clearly in mind.
Needing to return to this list more than once does not reflect insufficient faith. It reflects the honest, ongoing nature of needing courage and strength repeatedly, across many different moments, not only once.
Whatever tomorrow asks of you, this same courage and strength remain available, offered fresh again rather than expected to already be spent from today’s efforts.
Rest in that today, exactly as things are.
Share this list with someone else who needs both courage and strength today, letting your own encouragement become part of theirs.
You do not need to have it all figured out to begin taking the next honest step.
That itself is more than enough for where you stand right now, at this exact moment, before this exact decision.
When the angel of the Lord found Gideon, he was threshing wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites (Judges 6:11). He was not acting like a hero. Yet the angel greeted him with the words, “The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour” (Judges 6:12). God named Gideon by what He would make of him, not by what he felt at that moment. Gideon answered with questions and objections, saying his family was poor in Manasseh and he was the least in his father’s house (Judges 6:15).
God did not send him away. He gave patient signs, including the fleece that was wet and then dry (Judges 6:36-40). Then He did something surprising: He reduced Gideon’s army to three hundred men so Israel could not boast that its own hand had saved it (Judges 7:2). Among these Bible verses about courage and strength, Judges 6:12 deserves a place, because Gideon’s story shows the same pattern found in Joshua 1:9. The Lord’s presence comes first, and the courage follows, often slowly.
A few lessons stand out from his life:
Hebrews 11:32 later names Gideon among people of faith. Scripture remembers his trust, not his trembling, and that is good news for anyone reading these verses with shaking hands.
Few books illustrate the Bible verses about courage and strength as vividly as Daniel. It is a book about staying faithful in a culture that pressures you to bend, and its courage is rarely loud. Daniel purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king’s food (Daniel 1:8), and he asked politely for a ten-day test rather than staging a protest. Courage here looks like quiet, settled conviction.
The three Hebrew young men faced the furnace with a remarkable answer to Nebuchadnezzar: their God was able to deliver them, “But if not,” they still would not serve his gods (Daniel 3:17-18). Their courage did not depend on a guaranteed outcome. It is one of the clearest pictures in all of Scripture of trusting who God is, even when you do not know what He will do.
Daniel himself kept praying three times a day with his windows open toward Jerusalem after the decree was signed, “as he did aforetime” (Daniel 6:10). His bravery was simply his usual habit, continued under pressure. Late in the book, a weakened Daniel hears, “O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee: be strong, yea, be strong” (Daniel 10:19), and he says he was strengthened as he heard it.
They teach that courage under pressure is usually built long before the pressure arrives. Daniel’s steady prayer life made his response in chapter 6 look almost ordinary. Small, faithful routines today prepare you for larger tests later, whether that test is a hard decision at work or a quiet stand for what is right.
Several Bible verses about courage and strength are quoted so often that their meaning can drift. A few misunderstandings come up again and again.
Paul wrote it while explaining that he had learned to be content whether full or hungry, abounding or in need (Philippians 4:11-12). The strength Christ gives is strength to be faithful and content in any circumstance, not a guarantee of winning every contest. Read in context, it becomes one of the most comforting Bible verses about courage and strength for seasons of lack.
Not necessarily. God told Joshua “be not afraid” more than once, which suggests fear kept returning. David wrote, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee” (Psalm 56:3). Courage is choosing trust while fear is still present.
Scripture consistently points away from self-reliance. Isaiah 40 promises renewed strength to those who wait on the Lord, and Zechariah 4:6 says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” Strength is received more than manufactured.
Many who lived out the Bible verses about courage and strength, including Paul, Elijah and David, knew exhaustion and discouragement. Elijah even asked to die under a juniper tree (1 Kings 19:4), and God answered with food, sleep and a still small voice. Struggle is not proof of weak faith.
These questions help carry these verses into ordinary life. They work for personal journaling or a small group, so take one or two at a time rather than rushing through them all in one sitting.
For more on how trust fuels bravery, read Bible verses on courage and faith, and for passages suited to long, draining seasons, see Scripture on perseverance and strength.
If your group finds one verse especially meaningful, consider memorizing it together. Among these Bible verses about courage and strength, a single verse known by heart often does more good in a hard moment than many verses skimmed once.
Picture the camp east of the Jordan. Moses, the only leader most of the people had ever known, was dead and buried somewhere in Moab where nobody could find the grave. The river ran high with spring water, and across it stood walled cities that had frightened the last generation out of entering at all. Into that moment God spoke to Joshua, a man who had spent forty years as an assistant, carrying out another man’s orders.
Notice how often the command comes back. In Joshua 1:6, 1:7 and 1:9 the same call is repeated, and in 1:18 the people themselves say it to him. A leader who has to be told three times is a leader who feels the weight. Nothing in the text suggests Joshua was fearless, and God does not scold his nerves. He gives him a reason, and the reason is not Joshua’s résumé. The reason is company: ‘the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.’
Carry that into your own crossings. A new job after a mentor retires. A first winter in the house after a funeral. A scan appointment you drive to alone. The promise was never a warm feeling in the chest. It was a presence beside you at the water’s edge, and then the first wet step.
The pairing in Joshua 1:9 uses two Hebrew words, chazaq and amats. The first carries the picture of gripping, a hand closing around something so it will not slip. The second leans toward being firm, alert and ready to move, and is often translated bold. English readers hear two near-synonyms and move on, but the writer seems to be describing a sequence: hold on, then step forward.
That sequence explains why the verse suits such different days. Some days all you can do is grip, get through the shift, keep the promise, show up at the hospital again. Other days the road opens and the need is to move, make the phone call, sign the form, say the hard sentence. The command to be strong fits the first kind of day, and the command to be courageous fits the second.
The same family of words turns up in Psalm 31:24: ‘Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.’ The verb for strengthen there comes from the root behind chazaq. So the strength is something God does to a waiting heart, while the courage is the part we are asked to bring. The two warnings in Joshua 1:9, afraid and dismayed, also differ a little: one is about trembling, the other about being knocked flat.
Paul wrote Ephesians while chained to a Roman guard, so the soldier’s gear was not a distant image to him. He could have described it with his eyes closed. His opening line is easy to skip past: ‘Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might’ (Ephesians 6:10). The strength is located in the Lord, not in the reader’s reserves.
Then comes the gear, belt, breastplate, boots, shield, helmet and sword, each attached to a quality Paul wants his friends to hold. What strikes me is the verb he keeps using. Stand. In verse 11 it is ‘that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,’ and again in verses 13 and 14. This is courage as a held position, the kind a gate guard shows at three in the morning when nothing seems to be happening.
A soldier does not buckle on the breastplate in the middle of the fight. That is worth noticing for ordinary life. The reading, the prayer and the honest friendships that steady a person are put on beforehand, in the quiet. One caution from the same chapter: verse 12 says the struggle is not against flesh and blood. These verses were never meant to turn a difficult neighbour, boss or relative into the enemy.
Habakkuk prophesied as the Babylonian army was rising and Judah knew it was in trouble. His book begins with complaint and ends with one of the most stubborn pieces of faith in the Old Testament. In 3:16 he admits his belly trembled and his lips quivered at the report. Then he lists the losses he expects: no blossom on the fig tree, no fruit on the vines, empty fields, empty stalls.
After that list comes the turn in 3:19: ‘The LORD God is my strength, and he maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.’ A hind is a female deer, and anyone who has watched one cross a rocky hillside knows the picture. The cliff does not go away. The footing is what changes.
That is a fair description of how strength often arrives. The layoff still happened, and the test result is still the test result. But the next small foothold turns out to be there, and then the one after it. If your fear has grown past what a verse can hold, it is wise to say so to a pastor, a doctor or a counsellor. Habakkuk himself did not pretend to be fine; he spoke up first, and the confidence came later in the same conversation.
The wall of Jerusalem was finished, and the returned exiles gathered in the square by the Water Gate while Ezra read the Law aloud from morning until midday. As they understood it, they started to weep, probably from realizing how far the nation had drifted. Nehemiah and the Levites told them to stop. ‘This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep’ (Nehemiah 8:9).
Then comes the line many people know: ‘the joy of the LORD is your strength’ (Nehemiah 8:10). Read in place, it is not a slogan for putting on a cheerful face. It is attached to a meal, and to a command to ‘send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared.’ Strength here grows out of being forgiven, fed and shared with, a joy that has a table and a guest list.
I think of a woman I knew who had little energy during a long illness, yet kept a pot of soup moving down her street to others. She was not hiding her tiredness. Her strength showed up in the giving. If you have been treating joy as something you must produce on demand, this passage lifts that burden. It describes joy as something received first, and passed along second, and the strength follows from both.
Keep exploring with these related pages: Bible Verses For Strength and Courage, Bible Verses About Strength and Courage, Bible Verses For Courage and Strength, Bible Verses For Comfort and Strength and Bible Verses For God Giving Strength.
For deeper study, Bible Gateway, Bible Hub and Bible Study Tools are all free to use.
They teach that courage under pressure is usually built long before the pressure arrives. Daniel's steady prayer life made his response in chapter 6 look almost ordinary. Small, faithful routines today prepare you for larger tests later, whether that test is a hard decision at work or a quiet stand for what is right.
Paul wrote it while explaining that he had learned to be content whether full or hungry, abounding or in need (Philippians 4:11-12). The strength Christ gives is strength to be faithful and content in any circumstance, not a guarantee of winning every contest. Read in context, it becomes one of the most comforting Bible verses about courage and strength for seasons of lack.
Not necessarily. God told Joshua “be not afraid” more than once, which suggests fear kept returning. David wrote, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee” (Psalm 56:3). Courage is choosing trust while fear is still present.
Scripture consistently points away from self-reliance. Isaiah 40 promises renewed strength to those who wait on the Lord, and Zechariah 4:6 says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” Strength is received more than manufactured.
Many who lived out the Bible verses about courage and strength, including Paul, Elijah and David, knew exhaustion and discouragement. Elijah even asked to die under a juniper tree (1 Kings 19:4), and God answered with food, sleep and a still small voice. Struggle is not proof of weak faith.
