This memory just popped in my head. I don’t know if you did this in Sunday school, but we made a “phone book” of bible verses to call (call meaning just read in your Bible). For example: Call 1 Peter 4:10 when you don’t feel motivated…or call Isaiah 41:10 when you’re afraid.
What are your go-to Bible verses??
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Everytime people crush prisoners under their feet, the Lord knows all about it.
Lamentations 3:34
Love this idea! here are a few on my “speed-dial”:
#guidance — Proverbs 3:5-6
#anxiety — Philippians 4:6-7
#fear — Psalm 23:4
#lonely/heartbroken — Psalm 34:18
#tired/burned out — Matthew 11:28-30
#temptation — 1 Corinthians 10:13
#forgiveness — 1 John 1:9
#identity/assurance — Romans 8:38-39
curious to see everyone else’s “contacts”!
** **This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. ** **If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? ** **Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. I John 3:16-18
It reminds you that love is not words but actions. I think we forget that sometimes.
Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ~ 2 Timothy 4:2-3
I apologize, but this just raises a red flag for me since it’s been misused by prosperity preachers more than almost any other verse, which is sad. But Jeremiah 29: 11 in context was NOT written to make anyone rich or comfortable. God was speaking to Israel in exile, not luxury, under the chastening of judgment. They were being held captive in Babylon for the sin that they had committed. Even there, God promised them that He had not broken His covenant with them. The “plans to prosper you” were not material but spiritual restoration.
Yes, I have encountered that several times… 
What a GREAT idea!!!
Exellent reminder @ccrussell
The exhortation in ~1 John 3 16–18 is grounded in the self giving act of Christ, “By this we have known love, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers, But whoever may have worldly goods and sees his brother having need and shuts up his compassion from him, how does the love of God abide in him, Little children, we should not love with word or with tongue, but in action and in truth,” where the Greek verb ethēken (laid down, aorist active) anchors love in a completed sacrificial act at the cross, and the present subjunctive agapōmen (we should love) presses that same cruciform pattern into ongoing embodied obedience.
Jesus Himself defines love by obedient action when He says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” ~John 14 15, using the Greek verb tērēsēte (you will keep, future active), not as abstraction but as concrete guarding and practicing of His words, showing that love for Christ is proven through lived fidelity flowing from His impending self sacrifice.
James confronts verbal love stripped of deeds with piercing clarity, “If a brother or a sister is without clothing and lacking daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ but you do not give them the things needed for the body, what is the benefit?” ~James 2 15–16, where the verbs legete (you say, present active) and dōte (you give, aorist subjunctive) expose the emptiness of speech without action, anticipating his later declaration that faith without works is dead.
Paul reinforces this same truth by locating love in laboring action shaped by the cross, “And walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma” ~Ephesians 5 2, where the Greek verb peripateite (walk, present active imperative) demands a continual pattern of life, and paredōken (gave Himself up, aorist active) grounds all Christian love in the once for all surrender of Christ.
The Lord Jesus condemns religious speech divorced from mercy when He quotes Hosea, “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent” ~Matthew 12 7, where the verb thelō (I desire, present active) reveals God’s enduring will for covenant faithfulness expressed through compassionate action rather than ritualized words.
Paul summarizes the ethical outworking of the gospel by stating, “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” ~Galatians 5 14, using the Greek verb peplērōtai (has been fulfilled, perfect passive), showing that love enacted toward others completes the Law’s intent because it mirrors the self giving love revealed at the cross of Christ Jesus.
Finally, the Lord Himself declares the evidentiary nature of active love, “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love among one another” ~John 13 35, where the verb echēte (you have, present active) emphasizes possession expressed relationally, not rhetorically, love made visible through concrete actions shaped by the crucified and risen Lord.
Taken together, these passages testify with one voice that biblical love is never defined by eloquence or sentiment, but by cruciform obedience, sacrificial giving, and truth embodied, flowing from the once for all act of Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us.
God bless.
J.
some of mine:
