Question — Do you have a favorite verse(s) that lifts you up in times of frustration or deep sadness?

This is one of the questions that the ladies in my Sunday School class asked after I had the opportunity to share my health journey with them and to talk about God’s presence in it over the past decade and a half.

I still don’t have words for how much it meant to me to be given the opportunity to share my story. I also was amazed (once again) at how the process of preparing for sharing (like the writing process itself) reveals angles of the story that I might not otherwise have seen. Angles I hadn’t yet considered.

The same was true with the questions that came in afterwards for the Q+A session. Even though seemingly simple, the questions challenged me to put words to my experience in ways I hadn’t yet done.

In this post, I’m sharing the results that I found when considering a couple of the questions, and the next posts will go deeper into the individual pieces that make up this one.

Do you have a favorite passage?

Of course, whenever someone asks me my favorite anything, it’s hard to narrow it down!

When I was teaching middle school, my students used to laugh at me because I was always saying “this book . . . poem . . . story . . . food . . . historical time period . . . is one of my favorites!”

At one point they said, “But they’re all your favorites!”

It’s the same way with Scripture passages. There are so many that I have history with. So many that have become part of my story.

And as I tell my gradeschool students: considering the life I have lived, the teachers I have had, the experiences I have gone through, and the age I am at, this is exactly how things should be for me! Having this kind of relationship with the Bible/Scripture doesn’t make me a superChristian, it simply means I am a little farther along on the journey in this area. And it also reflects how God has worked in my particular life.

What passages do you come back to when life gets hard?

Another rather tricky question. The thing is that yes, there are multiple passages that I keep in my back pocket for rough days . . . but that sometimes those passages don’t always “hit the spot” when I am in a rough season. Just like favorite foods, favorite movies, favorite books, sometimes a passage becomes stale through familiarity. Or sometimes it’s not quite the word that I need for that season.

Which is why I am so grateful that I am not alone in meeting my needs for spiritual nourishment. Psalm 23 figures God as the shepherd who takes the initiative and responsibility to lead me to the nourishment that I need. And Jesus explains that He does this amazing thing through the presence of the Holy Spirit with us and in us.

(This is a mystery in the truest sense of the term, and one that I cannot address in this post. If you’re someone who is skeptical* about how this looks and works, let me invite you to “suspend disbelief” for a few moments and simply follow along as I share how I have experienced it in my life.)

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you. ~ John 14:26 (CSB)

I am often the “lost sheep” who feels the need to be re-found. And when this happens, the Holy Spirit brings back to my memory the things that God has taught me, and the things that He has said.

And He has so many ways of doing it! I find myself asking Him, “what do I need from You today? what do I need from You in this situation, and how are You going to meet me here?” And I try to be on the lookout for how He will show up (though He still manages to surprise me! Often!).

But yes, there are indeed passages I come back to time and again (passages that come back to me!). Here are 5 of them —

Lamentations 3 and Habakkuk 3:17-19 have helped me lament. And learning to lament brings me closer to the heart of God (and guides me back to His heart when I feel far away).

Psalm 139 reminds me of God’s presence with me and comforts me with His deep knowledge of me.

Philippians 4:6-9 reminds me (and shows me how!) to use my fears to guide me to God. This passage teaches me how not to shove my fears down, how not to pretend I don’t have any anxieties or worries. Instead we’re invited to recognize the desires our fears are based on, and we’re invited to turn those desires into requests.

1 Peter 1:7 has been a special encouragement to me ever since studying it in with Pastor John’s Sunday School classes at Bay Area Chinese Bible Church. The insights from a fellow-classmate’s day job really opened this verse wide for me, and I look forward to sharing how!

And that’s the list! Stay tuned for follow-up posts on the passages themselves 😊

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What are your go-to passages when times get rough? Or how have you been “found” when you’ve felt lost? I would love to hear your own experiences, if you feel led to share a comment.

Footnote on skepticism: as I share on my About page, skepticism is welcome here! Faith and doubt are quite closely connected, far more than they seem on the surface. — https://joyousthirst.wordpress.com/about-2/