Welcome back to my blog. I know it’s been a while, and I’ve been up to a lot since I posted on here more. But here I am, and here you are too. This blog post is on 5 verses that I like, and that I find important. I hope that you find it insightful, and I would love to hear what you think.
I am not a great writer, at least when it comes to explaining scripture. But I do want to curate scripture in a way that makes it easier to understand, especially if you are new to the Bible or to Christianity. I also want to share some insights that I have gained in my time as a Christian.
1. Worry
7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you
(1 Peter 5:7 NLT)
Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that God actually cares about us. We might even perpetually feel like God is mad at us.
However, there are many verses in the Bible that describe God’s thoughts for His people. (This seems like a future article.) God cares about our worries and our struggles. I believe that His emotions mirror ours very closely. After all, we are made in the image of God.
I have struggled with the worry thing a bunch. Diagnosed with OCD at 9, I’ve been a worrier for a while. It’s not necessarily the big life things that have chipped away at me, but the little things. I’ve felt like He is angry at me, or doesn’t care about me at all.
However I came to realize something. A lot of the times, I view life from a lens that doesn’t include God’s love. It’s life from a “what-if” perspective. This perspective can drive us mad. God doesn’t want us to live life from a “what-if” perspective, but instead gave us His Word. The Bible gives us this perspective of God’s love. It tells us that we don’t have to depend on ourselves for sanctification, and that we aren’t defined by our worst moments.
Here’s an example – one that’s pretty innocent. I used to struggle with anxiety regarding homework. I would spend hours fretting about the homework I had been assigned, and dreaded the act of doing it. I wondered if I would be able to finish it in time, or if I would understand the material enough to complete the assignment. After spending so much time worrying, I realized something – I had almost always finished my homework on time, and worrying about it didn’t do much of anything, except for remind me that it was there. When I stepped back and let this soak in, I felt such a sense of relief.
I have tried to apply this to my life recently in a different sense – I have worried so much about things in life, but God has brought me through them all and gotten me to where I am today. What use is worry? Prayer is more useful. Even if we don’t know how we are going to get through a situation, we can be sure of who is going to be there along the way. In this case – in the case of the Christian life – this is much more important.
*This isn’t to say that we should be carefree about everything in life. But action and worry are two different things, and one can be done with out the other.
2. Loyalty
3
Never let loyalty and kindness leave you!
Tie them around your neck as a reminder.
Write them deep within your heart.
(Proverbs 3:3 NLT)
I am fortunate enough to have some friends that have stuck with me since my early days. Loyalty is something that I really value in a friend. It is also something that I am working on. Mending and maintaining relationships is not something I’m perfect at, but I do want to be there for the people that value my friendship.
Not much to say on this verse, but loyalty is such an important attribute, especially for a follower of God.
3. Boldness
16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
Hebrews 4:16 NLT
This verse is so important to me. This verse speaks of mercy and of boldness. God will provide the mercy, but we are supposed to provide the faith. The way I see it, faith is the currency of Christianity. God uses people who have faith, and He likes to use those who have weaknesses especially. It isn’t our own power that makes us righteous in the eyes of God. Instead, God values our faith in Him and in His power.
This verse has helped me get through a really rough time. Sometimes, I feel like God has given up on me, but this verse is one that has helped me to be a more confident Christian. This verse explains how we should approach the Christian life. Instead of living of fear of everything, we should come to God with boldness. In order to be confident as a Christian, we should know our God. God is fair and kind. He listens to us, and he cares about us. One of my goals of this blog is to paint of picture of God from my view based on what I’ve read and studied.
So we can come to him in faith, knowing that He will forgive and will be on our side.
The timing on this verse has been so crucial in my own life. I hope that this is one you will remember on your walk as a Christian, or on your path to becoming one, or one that shapes how you view Christianity.
4. Hardships
7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
(1 Peter 1:7 NLT)
This is one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. These past couple years, I have dealt with some things that have brought me down. It feels like I have been tested time and time again. However, my faith has become so much stronger because of it it seems.
Sometimes, we need to view the things in life that bring us sorrow from a different lens. A life of struggle is much more valuable than one that is defined by pure comfort.
*That’s not to say there isn’t a time to mourn or be upset.
I would not be where I am today without going through a very tough season of life. God works in mysterious ways, but when I think I get a glimpse of His plan, I get a sense of peace.
When our faith it tested, it is purified and made stronger, and we are made more effective Christians.
5. Forgiveness
12
He has removed our sins as far from us
as the east is from the west.
Forgiveness is one of the most important topics of the Bible. It might just be the most important topic in the Bible. I think that a lot of Christians deal with forgiveness issues. I personally have spent a lot of time worrying about if he isn’t willing to forgive again. However, when God forgives, He removes our sin, and doesn’t hang it over our heads.
Morning is my favorite part of the day. This might be an unpopular opinion, but the feeling of a fresh start makes it such an amazing time for me. I think this is how God wants us to always feel when our sins have been forgiven. He wants us to have a fresh start, and to feel the day’s potential. Whatever screw-ups happened yesterday can stay there. Today, that’s where we should live.
- biblegateway.com
Christian Life 