Pocket Verses: Staying Well in Troubled Times

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know. (Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV)

For over a year, I carried this verse on a little piece of cardstock in my pocket. It was part of getting ready for the day along with putting lip balm in my pocket and looking for my keys. Every time I put my hand in my pocket throughout the day, my fingers would brush against this ragged and wrinkled card.

Just this slight brush of the fingers would instantly bring this verse to mind without me even looking at it. At the end of the day when I emptied my pockets, it would be wedged in the frame of my bathroom mirror. Now, these words will be ingrained in my head for the rest of my life.

Pocket Verses Bring Comfort

One could say that if anything in the world is going to cause such widespread stress and fear, it is the current time as we deal with a pandemic, political unrest, and economic impacts. Interestingly, fear of pandemic or illness is not really a stress for some. Whereas, financial struggle or relationship struggle may be more of a stressor and trigger the deep fear and anxiety. We all have our own unique buttons of stress or panic.

Anytime of stress or struggle, when we don’t know the “why” or the “how” of something, this verse from the Bible always pops into my head. It always gives me a slight shake and a chaser of a thrill to wonder what God is doing behind the scenes. It primes me to be amazed, to be exhilarated by the possibilities.

How can it do that while in the midst of the struggle? Because it shows a little peak behind the curtain at some very telling character traits of God.

He hears you

He is listening and hears you in the still and in the raging roiling torment in your mind. Not just listening, but attuned and interested in what we are thinking. He can’t show us things which we don’t know that the verse speaks shows He is aware of our limitations, experiences, and thoughts already.

It’s a Relationship

He is listening and knows the sum total of all our experiences, thoughts, and knowledge. He also desires a relationship. A back and forth of dialogue, not just a passive routine or motions detached from the mind. This verse states an active participation, we are to CALL to Him and He will SHOW us. We all know that we learn deepest by being shown how and doing with involvement. If you remember some of your favorite teachers growing up, they made use of this concept. God wants you to really KNOW it so He won’t just tell you- He will show you.

Mighty things can be very quiet

Have you ever heard of stories where the hero does an amazing act of heroism quietly behind the scenes? It makes you like the hero even more just for the reason that the hero isn’t self-promoting their own heroic acts. Yes, God is certainly capable of performing huge dramatic miracles of awesome wonder. But, have you ever considered that the great and mighty things which you don’t know may be happening all around you silently in someone else’s life because of the struggle? Maybe the mighty thing that you don’t know is the honing of your own mind that will lead to something that matters in a hundred years multiplied through a multitude of people and decades. I would call that great.

Peace in the Looking

For me, just knowing that God is moving, listening, orchestrating, in control, helps me to relax like a soft blanket wrapped around me. If I practice the art of looking for what He may be doing in this struggle, and I seek and call to Him to show me, I find that I have an upshift in my mind of calm and quiet and downshift of the stress and fear. God specifically states that He does not give us a spirit of fear:

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV)

There may be a time, when this verse needs to be the little card in my pocket for awhile until it is completely enmeshed into my thinking and autopilot.

Give a Pocket Verse a Shot!

Try it, you may like it. Give it a try and let me know if you have a verse that you need to carry in your pocket for awhile.