Bible verses for strength
Most verses about strength are quoted as though they were about winning. These were chosen for the other situation: a long season where the strength you had has already run out.
In nearly all of them the strength on offer is explicitly not your own, which is the point rather than a consolation.
Verses about strength get misused more than most, usually as pressure to keep performing. None of these is asking you to be impressive. Several were written by people who had just said, out loud, that they could not go on.
Nehemiah 8 : 10
the joy of the LORD is your strength
Spoken to people weeping over how far short they had fallen. The strength offered is not their resolve, which had already failed.
Psalm 73 : 26
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
It begins with failure and does not take it back. My flesh and my heart faileth is stated as fact before anything else is said.
Habakkuk 3 : 19
The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.
Written at the end of a book of complaint, after nothing had been resolved. Hinds’ feet are for high and difficult ground, not for level paths.
Ephesians 6 : 10
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. The qualifier is the whole instruction; without it the verse is just an exhortation to try harder.
Psalm 28 : 7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.
Strength and shield together: the capacity to go on and the protection while you do. It ends in song, which is not where it started.
Scripture is the King James Version, checked against a copy held on our own server. Balmody is not a medical or mental health service.