When we need encouragement, we often open our Bibles to search out the familiar, the underlined, and the noted. Often we read in a lesser known version in the hopes of a new insight.

We long for a fresh promise for the current season we are living.

In her latest book, 40 Verses to Ignite Your Faith, Laurie Polich Short brings insights from lesser known verses to encourage us in our journeys with God and life.

There are forty devotionals taking us through forty verses we can easily miss as we read some of the well known stories or oft quoted verses. Hidden in these lesser known verses we uncover a gentle whisper and insight which will broaden our understanding of who God is and the way He works in the lives of His people.

“The lesser know Scriptures that we pass over can help us discover new angles that can breathe life into our faith.”

(from page 12)

Let me share a few of the rich and hope-filled insights:

• From Sarah and Abraham: “Trusting a God who has allowed disappointment and despair requires a big faith … The Bible reveals that we have a God who will pull out all the stops for us to experience the largeness of His presence, even after we’ve attempted to shrink Him out of our lives” (page 18).
• From Hagar: “God doesn’t sweep away our messes; He includes them for how they will instruct us and others in our walks of faith” (page 23).
• From Job: “When we suffer, it is an opportunity to see that God believes in us enough to move our faith beyond the things He gives us – and to see His favor in what He asks from us instead. Our sufferings change and expand us, and we learn more about God, ourselves, and other in suffering than at any other time. The more we allow ourselves to be stretched in suffering, the more God’s heart for our lives can be revealed” (page 78).
• From John who was in prison: “God invites us to move toward Him with our doubts instead. John’s bold question to Jesus, (“Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”), gives us courage to ask our own questions and give God a chance to answer them. This opens the door for God to reveal Himself in a new way, which can reconstruct our perceptions and strengthen our faith” (page 140).

Each chapter is a short reading, making this book a wonderful forty day devotional. There are several questions included at the close of each chapter for deeper reflection that can be used both personally or in a group for discussion.

This was a new to me author and her writing style was authentic, easily understood, and richly encouraging. 40 Verses to Ignite Your Faith will refresh and renew your faith by bringing insight to the hidden and in between verses we often overlook.

You can connect with Laurie Polich Short on her website and on Twitter .

**I received this book from Bethany House Publishers. The opinions I have expressed are my own. This post contains affiliate links.  If you click through and make a purchase, I will receive a small percent at no additional cost to you.

Today I am joining … Heart Encouragement and Destination Inspiration and Tune In Thursday and Booknificent Thursday .