Whether you're waiting for your own results or news of someone you love, these verses offer somewhere to rest an anxious mind.

Hospitals involve an extraordinary amount of waiting. You wait to be seen, wait for tests, wait for results, wait for the doctor to come back, or sit in a corridor while someone you love is somewhere behind a set of doors, longing for an update from practically anyone who happens to be wearing a stethoscope.

And hospital waiting feels different from ordinary waiting. Reading a magazine can suddenly seem impossible, your phone becomes something you stare at rather than actually use, and even five minutes can feel remarkably long when you're frightened.

This is one of those moments when having a few words of Scripture close at hand can help. Not because a Bible verse can tell you what the doctor is going to say, but because it gives an anxious mind somewhere else to rest for a moment. Whether you're waiting for news about someone you love or you're the one wearing the hospital wristband, these verses are worth keeping on your phone.

“God is our refuge and our strength,
an ever-present help in distress.” -- Psalm 46:2

Hospitals are places where we have to hand over control rather abruptly. Other people decide what tests are needed, when they will happen and what comes next, while we sit and wait. This verse doesn't promise that everything will unfold exactly as we want it to; instead, it gives us somewhere to put ourselves when there is simply nothing useful left for us to do. God is not waiting at the end of the ordeal. He is an “ever-present help” right there in the middle of it.

“Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” -- Philippians 4:6

“Have no anxiety at all” can sound like quite an ask when you're awaiting medical results. Yet St. Paul immediately gives us something to do with that anxiety: bring our requests to God. In a hospital waiting room, that prayer doesn't need to be eloquent. Please let her be all right. Please guide the surgeon. Please help me cope with whatever they tell me. Sometimes those few words are all we have.

“When you pass through waters, I will be with you;
through rivers, you shall not be swept away.” -- Isaiah 43:2

Notice that God doesn't say there will be no waters to cross. That's important when you're sitting in a hospital, because reassurance that everything will definitely be fine can feel hollow when nobody yet knows that it will. The promise here is different: “I will be with you.” Whatever news eventually comes through those doors, you will not meet it alone.

“Be still and know that I am God!” -- Psalm 46:11

Being still sounds wonderfully peaceful until somebody forces you to do it in a hospital chair for three hours. Yet this tiny verse can become almost a breathing prayer when the waiting starts to get unbearable. Read it slowly. Put the phone down for a minute. You don't have to solve what is happening while you sit there; for this moment, you can simply let God be God.

“The LORD sustains him on his sickbed,
you turn down his bedding whenever he is ill.” -- Psalm 41:4

This may be a favorite for a hospital waiting room because of that wonderfully tender image of God turning down the bedding of someone who is sick. The USCCB notes that the Hebrew behind the phrase is difficult to translate, but that it suggests God's ongoing, attentive care of the sick person. When you cannot be beside someone yourself — perhaps they're in surgery, having a procedure, or simply somewhere you're not allowed to follow — that image can be particularly comforting.

“The Lord is near.” -- Philippians 4:5

Four words might be enough. You don't need to understand what's happening, manufacture optimism, or somehow become exceptionally brave because you've walked through hospital doors. You can be frightened, exhausted and desperate for someone to come down that corridor with news. The Lord is near. Sometimes, while you wait, that is the prayer you need most.

And perhaps that's why the Bible can be such good company in a hospital. When you're too distracted to read a chapter and too worried to formulate a beautiful prayer, one line can be enough to hold onto until the door opens.

If you'd like a little more comfort, you could also pray to some of these saints who happened to be doctors: