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For when you feel

Bible verses for when you need strength

about 2 min read

Isaiah 40:31 (BSB)

“But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.”

Isaiah 40 was written to people in Babylonian exile who had lost everything — their city destroyed, their temple burned, their homeland 800 miles away. The promise of strength was addressed to a community with every reason to believe they were finished.

Other passages that meet this experience

Philippians 4:13

“I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.”

Read in context (Phil 4:11-13), Paul is describing endurance through poverty and abundance, hunger and plenty — contentment in any circumstance. The verse is about endurance of conditions, not unlimited achievement.

Psalm 46:1

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble.”

Psalm 46 is a song of confidence in geopolitical chaos — nations in uproar, mountains shaking, kingdoms toppling. The strength is named in the context of crisis, not stability.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

“But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. […] For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul prayed three times for his 'thorn in the flesh' to be removed. It was not removed. The strength comes through the weakness, not in spite of it or instead of it.

A passage that does not offer easy comfort

2 Corinthians 12:7-9

Paul names something — a 'thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan' — that he asked God three times to remove. The text does not specify what it was. The answer Paul received was not that it would be removed but that grace would be sufficient. Strength in this passage is not the removal of weakness; it is presence within weakness.

Going further

The Hebrew verb in “renew their strength” — yachalifu — does not mean “add to existing strength.” It comes from chalaph, which means to change or exchange. What the verse describes is a swap: the strength one currently has, which has been spent, exchanged for a different strength.

This is why the surrounding verses (Isaiah 40:29-30) name the people the promise is addressed to:

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.

The promise is not for those still going strong. It is explicitly for those whose strength has run out. The starting condition the verse names is exhaustion, not capability. The exchange of strength happens for the spent.

Paul’s claim in 2 Corinthians 12 runs in the same direction. He wanted his weakness — whatever it was — removed. It was not removed. The strength he describes is not the absence of weakness; it is power operating through weakness. “My power is perfected in weakness.” The Greek teleitai (perfected, brought to completion) names a strength that does its full work in the condition of weakness, not in spite of it.

For the related contextual entry on Philippians 4:13 — which similarly describes strength through endurance of difficult conditions, not unlimited achievement — see our entry.

Original language note

Original language

Hebrew יַחֲלִיפוּ (yachalifu) — 'will renew' — from the verb chalaph (to change, exchange). HALOT s.v. chalaph: to pass on, to change, to substitute. The verse does not promise additional strength on top of existing strength — it promises an exchange: old strength for new. The image is of someone whose strength is spent receiving fresh strength in its place. The verb chazaq (חָזַק, to be strong, firm) — used elsewhere for military strength and structural reinforcement — is the standard Hebrew word for strength generally; Isaiah 40:31 uses the word koach (כֹּחַ) — capacity, ability, vigour.

What this verse does not promise

The verse does not promise physical strength on demand. It does not promise that those who wait will not grow tired in the waiting (the verse explicitly addresses the weary). The renewal is described as an exchange — old strength for new — for those who are already exhausted. It does not promise that the waiting will be short.

Related entries

What does this mean to you?

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