Someone, undergoing tests for possible cancer, recently asked me for Bible verses.  I hunted up the ones through which the Lord spoke to me when I was facing anxiety-producing surgery.  Here they are in the “no-particular-order” I first wrote them . . .

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6,7).

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you (Isaiah 26:3).

“Peace I [Jesus] leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).

” . . . God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.  So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” (Hebrews13:5b,6).

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9,10).

“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11b-13).

Now, what to do with them?  I found memorizing best.  Memorizing helped me think deeply about the words, not simply skim them.  (A special problem with familiar verses.)  Memorizing forced me to think word-for-word.  Work?  Yes.  But worth it!

Memorizing also let me take God’s words with me wherever they took me for surgery-prep (and where a Bible or even piece of paper was verboten).  Mostly, they were waiting-for-the-next-step times.  Especially before my first surgery.  In “the holding area.”  A dozen of us lay there.  Strangers.  Waiting to be knocked out and cut up.  A great time for anxious thoughts.  But with words like these–the very words of God–in my head, I could fight the good fight of the faith.

Lois and I have a niece who’s suffered through literally dozens of surgeries, all major.  I remember assuring her once, “The Lord will be with you.  Not only that, he’ll be waiting for you in the operating room.”  She told me later how much peace it gave her knowing Jesus was waiting for her there.

That’s true for all of us who are his, whether it’s an operating room or whatever suffering we face next.  The Lord is not only with us, but waiting for us as we step into the next “whatever”.  With Scriptures like these we can add one more promise of the Lord-with-us:  with his specific words in our minds and the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we bring him with us.

“God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you'” (Hebrews 13:5b).