Bible Verses About Strength (KJV)

Paul's prayer names both the place the strength goes and the supply it comes from: the inner man, strengthened by God's Spirit out of the riches of his glory rather than out of the believer's reserves.

The most quoted strength verse in the Bible, and the most often read apart from its sentence. Paul has just said he has learned to be 'both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need' (v. 12). The 'all things' he can do through Christ is the endurance of any circumstance — not the guarantee of any outcome.

The armour passage opens with strength that is borrowed. Not simply be strong, but 'be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.'

Strengthened with all might — and what Paul expects it to produce is not conquest but 'patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.' In Scripture, strength most often shows up as the capacity to bear.

Paul had asked three times for the thorn to be removed (v. 8). God's answer was not removal but sufficiency: strength 'made perfect' — brought to its full expression — in weakness. Which is why Paul can end where he does: 'when I am weak, then am I strong.'

Spoken to people weeping as they heard the law read aloud (v. 9). Nehemiah does not argue that their grief is wrong; he tells them where their strength is to be found instead: 'the joy of the LORD is your strength.'

The psalmist concedes the failure outright — 'my flesh and my heart faileth' — and then puts God in the exact place where his own strength gave out.

Strength arriving inwardly, in answer to prayer, on the day it was needed: 'strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.'

The word to Zerubbabel, who was rebuilding the temple. The work would be finished by his own hands (v. 9), and still it would not be finished by his own strength: 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit.'

Four promises answer one fear: I am with thee, I will strengthen thee, I will help thee, I will uphold thee. The fear is addressed by the presence, not by a change in the circumstances.

Spoken to Joshua as he took command after the death of Moses (v. 1). The command to be strong rests on a fact rather than on Joshua's nerve: 'the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.'

Moses' charge to Israel once he has told them he will not cross the Jordan with them (v. 2). The people are strengthened by the promise that God will not fail them, at the moment their leader must.

Two questions, both rhetorical, both answered before they are asked. If the LORD is 'the strength of my life,' the honest answer to 'whom shall I fear?' is nobody.

Strength and shield named together: what holds you up, and what stands between you and the blow.

'A very present help' — near in the trouble, not after it. The psalm immediately raises the stakes: though the earth be removed, and the mountains carried into the midst of the sea (v. 2).

The order matters. Courage is commanded first; the strengthening of the heart follows it, promised to 'all ye that hope in the LORD.'

'In all these things' points back to the list in verse 35: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. Believers are not spared them; they are 'more than conquerors' through them.

Four short commands as Paul closes the letter — watch, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Strength is listed last, after watchfulness and faith, not before them.

Written from prison. Paul has just said that at his first defence 'no man stood with me, but all men forsook me' (v. 16). The Lord stood exactly where everyone else did not.

Suffering is given both a term — 'after that ye have suffered a while' — and an outcome. Four verbs describe what God does on the far side of it: make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.