Bible verses for when you are starting something new
about 3 min read
“Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Paul writes this from prison to a church he had founded. The verb enarchō ('began') and epiteleō ('carry on to completion') are technical liturgical verbs — used together for the beginning and completion of a sacrifice or temple ritual. The good work has formal language attached to it; the beginning is being treated as the start of a process that has a defined end.
Other passages that meet this experience
“The LORD had said to Abram: 'Leave your country, your kindred, and your father's house, and go to the land I will show you.' […] So Abram departed, as the LORD had directed him.”
The biblical pattern of beginning. Abraham is not told the destination — only the directive to go. The text records that he goes 'as the LORD had directed.' The new thing is begun before the full picture is given.
“Do not call to mind the former things; pay no attention to things of old. Behold, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.”
Spoken to Israel still in exile, when the new thing is not yet visible. The Hebrew chadashah ('new') and the verb tsamach ('to spring up') name the new thing as already underway, even before it can be seen.
“To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”
The Teacher's well-known opening to chapter 3. The Hebrew zeman ('time, appointed time') names beginnings and endings as part of the structure of human life — not exceptions. There is a season for starting; there is a season for stopping. Both are normal.
A passage that does not offer easy comfort
'Which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has the resources to complete it? Otherwise, if he lays the foundation and is unable to finish the work, everyone who sees it will ridicule him.' Jesus's instruction is realistic about the seriousness of beginning. The verse does not say not to start; it says count the cost. For someone starting something new, the verse is honest: not every beginning will succeed, and the seriousness of the undertaking is part of what should be considered before beginning.
Going further
The biblical pattern of beginning is striking in how often the destination is not specified at the outset. Abraham receives the call to leave Ur in Genesis 12:1 with the directive go to the land I will show you — future tense, not specified. The text records that he went; only after going did the destination become visible. Moses receives his call at the burning bush — go to Egypt and bring the people out — and the route to Canaan is forty years long, with most of it unknown to him at the outset. The disciples leave their nets at Jesus’s call (follow me) before they know where the following will take them.
This pattern matters for what the texts offer someone starting something new. The biblical material is not interested in pretending that beginning is done with full information. It is realistic that beginnings happen with incomplete knowledge — sometimes with no more than a directive and a trust in the one giving it.
Philippians 1:6 names the structural side of this. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. The Greek pairing — enarchomai (began) and epiteleō (carry on to completion) — is liturgical language. The two verbs are the formal commencement and completion vocabulary for sacrificial and temple actions. Paul applies this language to the good work God has begun in the believer. The good work in this verse is the work of salvation/sanctification — it is not a generic blessing on every project a believer undertakes, though many readings stretch it that way. What it does claim is that the deeper work the LORD has begun in someone has a guaranteed arc.
For an immediate new project — a job, a move, a relationship, a venture, a season of life — the texts are more measured. Luke 14:28-30 names the seriousness of beginning. Count the cost. Not every venture succeeds. Some beginnings should not be begun. Wisdom precedes commencement.
What the texts do offer is the company of a long tradition of beginnings that were started without full information and worked out through the walking. Isaiah 43:18-19 says behold, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. The Hebrew is present-progressive: the new thing is already underway, even before it is visible. For someone in the early days of a new beginning — when the outcome cannot yet be seen — the verse is in the canon as encouragement that beginnings happen this way. The newness is real even before it is recognisable.
What is offered to someone starting something new is the structural assurance for the deeper work, the wisdom-tradition of counting the cost for the immediate venture, and the long-pattern company of those whose beginnings the canon records. Go to the land I will show you is in the canon as the texture of how new things often start: with a directive, a trust, and the route given step by step.
What does this mean to you?
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