Bible Verses About

Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

This life verse is really simple.  But I love how powerful it is and how impactful it has been in my life.  When I get into a place of despair, anxious and stressed about life, sometimes the best thing I can do is to just quiet my mind and remember that God is God and is more powerful than my current situation.  Even when things are going well and I’m basking in prosperity, still it’s good to reflect and be quiet and remember that God is the one that’s truly in control.  Whatever my current situation happens to be, it’s good to take time to just be still and to remember who God is and that He’s the one that’s in control.

So often life gets so hectic that I lose my focus and perspective.  If I don’t take time to reorient myself and my perspective, then the stresses of the day will often overwhelm me and my peace and joy will fade.  So if you’re anxious and feeling a lot of stress, take the time to just be still and know that God is God and is in control of your situation.  If things are good and you’re feeling blessed, take the time to thank God just for being who He is and for caring about you enough to want to bless your life.  That’s who God is, and taking the time to be still and to realize who He is one of the most important things we can do in life.

“He has shown you, O man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  Micah 6:8

This is an awesome Bible verse about life that sums everything up perfectly.  I love the preface of the verse, showing exactly what God requires of each person on earth.  That doesn’t happen very often with most commands.  Usually a Bible command gives us only a part of the story, but this verse gives the whole story.  If you want to live life well and do what God requires, then strive toward these three things.  Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God.  I love the juxtaposition of the first two ideas.  Justice and mercy are often mutually exclusive terms.  You can have either one or the other, but usually not both at the same time.  But that’s what makes grace so amazing.  Grace is both justice and mercy combined.  And because of God’s grace, we have no choice but to walk humbly before God.  Because God has given us more that what we could ever deserve, it should produce a lot of humility.  The other thing that I really love about this passage is the fact that it lines up well with the philosophy of the ancient Greeks that I often enjoy studying.  According to the great philosophers Plato and Socrates, justice is the highest thing that humans can aspire towards.  Only a just person lives his life well.  It’s cool when things line up like that.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”  Proverbs 14:12

I’ve often considered this life verse, during hard times of self-reflection when my life isn’t going the way that I had hoped and I realize at last that I’ve been walking a path that wasn’t what I thought it was.  It’s so sad how easily we fall victim to false hopes.  The grass is always greener on the other side, they say.  The thing that strikes me especially about this verse is the strong claim about the outcome of our false paths.  He could have said that the way that seems right, in the end leads to discouragement or something similar.  But no, he said that the way that seems right actually leads to death.  That’s pretty powerful language.  Not only are we often wrong, we’re so wrong in fact, that when we think we’re achieving a better life for ourselves, we’re actually walking in the exact wrong direction, toward death instead of life.

I guess that’s why Jesus said things like “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it,” because greed, selfish ambition, and the like are actually paths to death.  When we strive toward our own gain, we end up losing our life in the process, or at least the part of ourselves that really matters.  For my own part, I’ve been on the path that leads to death many times.  I hate how easily I let the wrong things motivate me and change the direction of my focus.  Hopefully now that I’m older, I’m done with those sorts of paths.  Probably not.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5

This is a really famous Bible verse about life — a very often quoted and very well loved verse.  It took me a long time to fully appreciate the value of having a straight path to walk and how trusting in God even when things don’t make sense, is the key. When your path isn’t straight, when you can only see to the next bend, are world is so small.  All we manage to care about are the daily trials and troubles.  We can’t see the big picture, or strive toward anything meaningful.  All we can see is the short road ahead of us before it bends around the corner and out of view.  And with the uncertainty of what’s ahead comes fear.  That’s when trusting God and not leaning on your own understanding becomes so important.  To release control, especially when it’s difficult and things don’t make sense, that’s when God straightens out our paths so shows us the bigger picture of what’s really important.

Being on a straight path has tremendous value.  Firstly, you can look behind you to see all the places you’ve come from, learning from your mistakes so that you’re not doomed to repeat them.  And second, the road ahead is fully in view, showing us bigger picture of what’s to come and what things are truly important in life.  Being on a straight path reduces a person’s cares for the trivial trials and troubles of day to day living and into the peaceful confidence of knowing the bigger picture.