Like many, I was drawn to the power of Christ by terrible events in my life. My father had died year earlier, I was in a state of constant depression, and I had just been fired from what I felt was the perfect job for me. I won’t lie to you, I worried a lot. I spent my days feeling depressed and defeated. But I found comfort in the following versus. These are some of the most important versus to me.
Proverbs 15:4 NIV
The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.
This is one of the first versus I heard when I started my walk in faith. This applies not only to what you say to others but what you say to yourself. If I choose to say bad things all day long I will spread and find bad things everywhere. If instead I choose to say positive life giving words, then I will empower and enrich the lives of others, and I will find life!
Matthew 6:25-27 NIV
25″Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
In my moments of worry I remind myself of this verse. God takes care of his people. If he provides for birds, then what will he do for me? Every time I worry about the mortgage, or freak out about how we are going to make ends meet this month, I slow down and remind myself that God has set in motion this amazing world in such a way that I will always have enough to survive.
1 Timothy 1:15-16 NIV
15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-of whom I am the worst.16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.
It’s amazing to me that God uses me, a sinner, to minister to others. This verse was written by the Apostle Paul. If you are not familiar with him, he was actually a man who hunted down and killed Christians in the early church until Jesus literally knocked him to the ground and showed him the truth. I take comfort that even with the worst of my past, I am part of his plan and he will use me to show his grace and love to everyone.
Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 NIV
10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
and this was the reward for all my toil.
11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.
This verse might seem incredibly depressing, and in truth it is. But here is the truth behind it. We are not made for this world. We will search for comfort and fulfillment all day long. We can do everything that this world says will make us happy, A great marriage, A good job, own all of the things that we want, but in reality we are not meant for this world. We have only one thing that will fill that void in our heart.
Luke 5:31-32 NIV
31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Before I allowed myself to believe in Christ, I was bothered by one thing; Religion. Religion says that you should be perfect. God says jump, you say how high. God is only interested in helping the good. But then I see this versus which changed my view of everything. Some of the most religious people of the day were trying to Trick Jesus by calling out by how he surrounded himself with sinners. His response is beautiful to the idea of religion. Jesus doesn’t want us to be religious, he wants us to seek him with our heart and in that find love, peace, and life.
Romans 8:17 NIV
Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
This has been a new favorite of mine. If I have any hope of seeing all the good things that God has to offer, I have to suffer as well. Sometimes this is mental, sometimes it’s physical. I will be called crazy and closed minded. God will put trials in my life that will test my faith and force me to change and grow. But if I have any hope to see it through the end, then I will have to suffer a little. But I am not alone. The Son of God, has suffered far greater than I have ever know or will know. God is not asking for anything greater than what he himself in a human form has suffered.
If you are anything like me, you are reading this with one of two frames of mind. The first is to grow spiritually as a new believer in Christ. The second, and I am grateful if you are, is to poke holes or discredit God. I have been there, I have done that. I have argued with the best of them and if I took the time I could give a thousand reasons why God doesn’t exist. But as I read through verses and scripture I find myself drawn more and more to the inevitable truth that God is real and has changed my life for the better. Regardless of your mind set, I hope with all of my heart that you find wisdom and comfort in these words.
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