Bible verses for strength and courage are for times when you must face something you would rather avoid, like a difficult conversation, a new job or a frightening medical appointment. Many are short enough to memorise and pray on the spot. Let them remind you that God holds your right hand, fights for you and never lets anything separate you from his love.
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)
A verse many people memorise: be strong and courageous, for God is with you wherever you go.
For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
Isaiah 41:13 (KJV)
God pictures himself holding your right hand and saying, Fear not; I will help thee.
Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
Psalms 27:14 (KJV)
Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Psalms 46:1-2 (KJV)
Because God is our refuge, we need not fear even if the earth is removed.
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 40:31 (KJV)
Waiting on the Lord brings renewed strength to run and not be weary.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:13 (KJV)
Paul’s reminder that Christ gives strength for whatever lies ahead.
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 gives a spirit of power, love and a sound mind, not a spirit of fear.
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; my heart trusts him and I am helped.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psalms 23:4 (KJV)
The Shepherd’s rod and staff bring comfort in the darkest valley.
What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
Psalms 56:3 (KJV)
A one-line prayer for anxious moments: What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Isaiah 43:1-2 (KJV)
God redeems and names his people, promising to be with them through waters and fire.
In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.
Psalms 138:3 (KJV)
God answered David’s cry and strengthened him with strength in his soul.
The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
Exodus 14:14 (KJV)
At the Red Sea Moses tells the people that the Lord will fight for them while they hold their peace.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
Psalms 121:7-8 (KJV)
The Lord will preserve your going out and coming in, from this time forth.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
Isaiah 35:4 (KJV)
A word for fearful hearts: be strong, fear not, your God will come and save you.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:37-39 (KJV)
Nothing can separate us from God’s love, so we are more than conquerors through Christ.
I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Psalms 16:8 (KJV)
Keeping the Lord before you gives a steady heart that will not be moved.
Joshua 1:9 works well prayed by naming your specific situation, asking for both strength and courage grounded in God’s presence.
Two nearby collections worth opening next are Bible Verses About Courage and Faith and Bible Verses About Powerful Prayer.
All Scripture here is quoted from the King James Version, which you can read in full at Blue Letter Bible.
This subject overlaps with Bible Verses For Growing in Faith and with Bible Verses For Loving Your Enemies.
Bible Verses For Grief and Bible Verses For Grace pick up threads that run through these verses.
For a related angle, see Bible Verses About Wisdom or Bible Verses For Being Thankful.
You might also turn to Bible Verses For Strength and Hope and Bible Verses About Strength and Hope.
Comparing translations can help, and Bible Gateway does that for free.
Bible Hub offers commentary and cross-references for each verse.
Return to this verse as you continue facing your situation with both strength and courage.
Be strong and of a good courage is repeated multiple times to Joshua within a single chapter, an unusual concentration of the same instruction given to one person facing one specific task. This repetition suggests courage was not assumed to arrive automatically, even for someone chosen for significant leadership — it needed to be spoken, and spoken again, directly into a specific, daunting assignment.
If you are facing something that requires real courage right now, this repeated pattern is worth remembering. Needing to hear this instruction more than once is not a sign of insufficient faith; it reflects the actual pattern given even to Joshua.
Biblical courage is not described as an absence of fear, but as action taken despite fear’s presence. Several figures commended for courage in Scripture are also described as genuinely afraid in the same accounts. This distinction matters — if you feel afraid but are still moving forward faithfully, that combination reflects genuine courage, not its absence.
Rather than praying generally for courage as an abstract quality, naming the specific task or decision that currently requires it tends to focus prayer more effectively. What exactly requires courage from you today? Naming it directly, rather than only requesting courage in general, is worth doing deliberately.
Courage is not typically built through a single dramatic display but through repeated smaller acts — each one making the next slightly more accessible. If the courage you need feels too large to summon all at once, consider whether there is a smaller, more immediate act of courage available right now, rather than waiting to feel ready for the larger one all at once.
Whatever specifically requires courage from you today, a conversation, a decision, a step forward, these verses are meant to be prayed directly over that actual moment, not read only as general encouragement.
Return to this list before the next moment that requires courage, letting it become part of your preparation rather than only something read after the fact.
Fear rarely disappears completely before courage becomes possible. Move forward alongside it, not only after it has fully gone.
That first small step matters more than it may currently seem.
Whatever it costs you to take it, take it anyway, trusting that the strength to keep going will meet you exactly where the courage runs out.
Go now.
Whatever is waiting on the other side of this next step, it is worth taking, one honest breath at a time.
Rahab ran an inn built into the wall of Jericho and had every reason to turn in the two Israelite spies who showed up looking for shelter, since hiding enemy scouts from her own king was a capital offense. Instead she hid them under stalks of flax on her roof, lied to the soldiers sent to find them, and sent the search party off in the wrong direction entirely.
She told the spies plainly that she had heard how their God had dried up the Red Sea and defeated other kings, and that everyone in Jericho was already melting with fear because of it. Her courage was not built on ignorance of the danger; it grew directly out of a clear-eyed belief that Israel’s God was more powerful than the city walls she lived inside.
Rahab negotiated protection for her whole family before letting the spies go, using a scarlet cord in her window as the agreed sign, and when Jericho fell she and her household were the only ones spared, a quiet but very real payoff for Bible Verses For Strength and Courage lived out days earlier under real risk. These Bible Verses For Strength and Courage find an unlikely source in her, a Canaanite woman whose bravery outpaced an entire city that had heard the exact same reports she had.
Esther learned that an official decree, sealed under the king’s own authority, would soon allow the extermination of every Jewish person in the empire, including herself, though the king did not know her heritage. Approaching the king without being summoned carried a death sentence unless he extended his golden scepter, and Esther had not been called to him in thirty days.
Mordecai sent her a pointed message, suggesting that she might have come into her royal position for exactly this moment, and warning that deliverance would come from somewhere else if she stayed silent out of fear. Esther asked for three days of fasting from the whole Jewish community before she acted, refusing to walk in unprepared even though the danger could not wait much longer than that.
She finally said the words that still define this part of her story: if I perish, I perish. These Bible Verses For Strength and Courage do not describe a woman who felt confident walking into that throne room; they describe someone who decided the risk was worth taking regardless of the fear still present in her chest.
Daniel’s political rivals, unable to find any real corruption to accuse him of, convinced King Darius to sign a decree making it illegal to pray to anyone but the king for thirty days, knowing Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem three times daily and would not stop for a manufactured law. Daniel kept praying with his windows open exactly as he always had, changing nothing about his routine once he learned of the decree.
Darius, trapped by his own law, was forced to have Daniel thrown into the lions’ den, though Scripture records he spent the whole night unable to sleep and rushed to the den at dawn, calling out to ask whether Daniel’s God had been able to deliver him. Daniel answered that God had sent an angel to shut the lions’ mouths, because he had been found innocent before Him.
Daniel’s courage was quiet rather than defiant; he did not organize a protest against the decree or hide his faith to survive it. These Bible Verses For Strength and Courage show up in him as simple consistency, continuing an ordinary daily habit even after it had become officially illegal and personally dangerous to keep doing it.
King Jehoshaphat received word that a massive coalition of three enemy nations was already marching against Judah, a force large enough that Scripture says he was afraid, and his first response was to set his face to seek the Lord and call the entire nation to fast together. He stood in the temple courtyard and prayed openly that Judah had no power against this vast army and did not know what to do, but their eyes were on God.
A prophet named Jahaziel answered that the battle was not Judah’s to fight, but God’s, and told them to take their positions the next day and simply watch the deliverance rather than engage the enemy themselves. Jehoshaphat appointed singers to walk out ahead of the army praising God, an odd battle strategy by any military standard.
By the time Judah reached the battlefield, singing these early Bible Verses For Strength and Courage instead of shouting a battle cry, the three enemy armies had already turned on each other and destroyed themselves, leaving nothing for Judah to do but collect the plunder. Readers exploring Bible Verses About Courage and Strength will find more examples like this one, where courage looked like worship walking in front of an army rather than a sword drawn first.
Rahab acted with clear eyes about the danger she was in, Esther moved forward despite genuine fear rather than the absence of it, Daniel simply kept an ordinary habit going after it became illegal, and Jehoshaphat led with worship instead of a weapon. None of them waited to feel brave before they moved; the courage showed up in the action itself, not before it.
That pattern is worth remembering the next time these Bible Verses For Strength and Courage feel distant from an actual, present fear. Scripture rarely describes courage as the absence of danger recognized honestly; it describes ordinary people who kept walking forward, praying and staying consistent while the danger was still very real and still very much unresolved.
The disciples were straining against a contrary wind in the middle of the sea when they saw Jesus walking toward them on the water and cried out in terror, assuming they were looking at a ghost. Jesus immediately told them to be of good cheer, that it was Him, and not to be afraid, but Peter still asked for proof, saying that if it was really Jesus, he should command Peter to come to Him on the water too.
Jesus said one word, come, and Peter climbed out of the boat and actually walked on the surface of the sea toward Him, something none of the other disciples attempted. It was only when Peter noticed how strong the wind was that fear crept back in and he began to sink, crying out for Jesus to save him, which Jesus did immediately, catching him by the hand.
Peter’s brief walk on the water still shapes how these Bible Verses For Strength and Courage get applied today, because his courage did not depend on perfect, unshakable faith the whole way across. It depended on getting out of the boat in the first place, and on knowing exactly who to call out to the moment that courage started to falter.
Joshua was not the first person to hear those words. Moses said them aloud in front of the whole camp, and Deuteronomy 31 records the scene. Moses is a hundred and twenty years old, he has been told he will not cross the Jordan, and he turns to the man who will. “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).
Think about what that moment cost both men. Joshua had spent forty years at Moses’ elbow, carrying his gear up the mountain and standing watch outside the tent. Now the person he leaned on was saying goodbye. Notice what Moses leaves out. He never says Joshua will be as good as he was, and he never says the road ahead is easy. He points away from himself, to the One who goes along.
So when God repeats the charge in Joshua 1, it lands on ground already prepared. If you are stepping into a role someone else held for decades, a parent’s business, a retiring pastor’s pulpit, a seat at the table that used to belong to a husband, that old scene fits you well. Courage there begins with admitting you are not the person you replaced, and that nobody ever asked you to be.
The angel found Gideon crouched at a winepress, beating out wheat where the Midianite raiders would not see him. Wheat is normally threshed on an open hilltop where the wind carries off the chaff, so this was a man working in secret and probably working badly. The greeting he received sounds almost like a joke: “The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour” (Judges 6:12).
Gideon’s answer is refreshingly blunt. If the LORD is with us, he asks, then where are the miracles our fathers told us about? He doesn’t hide the doubt. He lays it out, and God does not scold him for it. Instead he is told to go in the strength he already has, and the sign he asks for, a fleece wet while the ground is dry and then the reverse, is granted.
That is worth sitting with if you feel like the least likely person in your family or workplace to be asked for bravery. God addressed Gideon by what he would become, not by what he was doing that afternoon. Strength in this story is not found by looking inward and finding more of it. It arrives with the call, and it arrives while the knees are still shaking. Many readers find it freeing to hear that their fear and their calling can sit in the same room.
David had no armor that fit and no standing in the army, yet he talked King Saul into letting him face Goliath. His reasoning is the interesting part. He didn’t claim he was fearless. He pointed to what he had actually lived through: “The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:37).
Courage here is built from memory. Alone with sheep, David had met a lion and a bear, and each time he walked away. He didn’t treat those nights as private luck. He read them as evidence about God. When the giant appeared, David was not starting from zero; he was adding one more chapter to a record he already trusted.
You may not have faced anything as dramatic as a bear, but you have faced something. A hard diagnosis you got through, a layoff that didn’t end the family, a night when the bills simply didn’t add up and yet the next month came. Writing a few of those down on a card is not sentimental busywork. It is exactly the kind of reasoning David used, and it gives fear less room to say that nothing has ever turned out all right.
Some people hear these verses and decide that boldness means rushing in. Scripture doesn’t read that way. The same Psalm that says “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart” also repeats the word wait before it finishes (Psalm 27:14). Esther fasted for three days first. Nehemiah spent months praying before he spoke to the king. Waiting can be the braver choice when everyone around you wants a quick answer.
It also helps to separate courage from stubbornness. A person who refuses to hear any counsel is usually protecting pride, not trusting God. Proverbs says that in the multitude of counsellors there is safety (Proverbs 11:14), so telling a pastor, a spouse or an old friend what you plan to do is not a lack of faith.
Finally, be gentle with yourself when fear is heavy and constant. Persistent dread, panic that disrupts sleep, or a fear that keeps you from leaving the house may need the help of a doctor or counselor, and asking for it is a sensible and faithful step. The verses above sit well beside that kind of care. They were never meant to replace it, and nothing in them suggests a believer ought to carry anxiety alone.
Other collections you may find useful: Bible Verses About Courage and Strength, Bible Verses For Courage and Strength, Bible Verses About Strength and Courage, Bible Verses About Peace and Strength and Bible Verses For God Giving Strength.
To study these verses in more depth, try Bible Gateway, Bible Hub and Bible Study Tools.
Joshua 1:9 works well prayed by naming your specific situation, asking for both strength and courage grounded in God's presence.
This page brings together 1 King James Version references about strength and Courage, drawn from 1 different books of the Bible.
The verses about strength and Courage on this page are drawn from the Old Testament, including passages such as Joshua 1:9.
Joshua 1:9 is one of the verses about strength and Courage referenced in this collection.
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.
