Have you ever posted lines of comfort and encouragement in key places of your home or workplace? Perhaps on your bathroom mirror, refrigerator, the wall behind your desk, or even on your steering wheel? If so, from what sources did those lines come? Odds are they were Scripture verses, lines from a book, a famous quote, or a pithy saying from a sermon or article.

Have you ever posted a line from a catechism?

We often think of Reformed catechisms—such as the Westminster Shorter Catechism or the Heidelberg Catechism—as dense summaries of Christian truth wrapped in time-tested language. But they’re more than that. When fixed before the eyes and settled in the heart, these little questions and answers have the power to counsel us with big-picture perspective, soul-stabilizing assurance, and fear-dispelling hope.

In this piece, I want to highlight five of the most comforting lines in various Reformed catechisms (four are centuries-old, one is very recent). These are lines you can ponder in times of distress, savor in times of sorrow, and hang on to for dear life in the whirlwind.

So, let’s begin with number five as we journey toward number one.

5. Theodore Beza, A Little Book of  Christian Questions and Responses, Q. 114

“When people get to know me, they really like me.” “I can accept criticism without taking it personally.” “My past is one big learning experience.” These are three of the “75 Affirmations for Self Improvement” on the website called The Emotion Machine.¹ Something in us craves affirmations such as these, because something in us aches with the awareness that our lives don’t measure up.

The gospel offers something better than affirmation, and it’s called imputation, a word taken from the Latin imputare that means “to reckon, to enter into the account.” Specifically, the shortfall of our lives according to the standard that really matters—the standard of God’s law—is made up for in the surpassing perfection of the life Jesus lived, which God then gives (or “imputes”) to us. Here is how Theodore Beza, Calvin’s remarkable successor in Geneva, put it in his Little Book of Christian Questions and Responses:

Q. What is imputation?

A. The benefit of God the Father whereby he deigns to reckon that obedience of Christ as ours, as if we ourselves had fulfilled the law, and made satisfaction for our sins.

Put that one on your bathroom mirror and remember that though your life may not measure up, Christ’s life did. When God looks on you, He sees the perfection of His Son imputed to you. Because of Christ and in Christ, you can say, “I have something better than affirmation; I have imputation!”

4. William Twisse, A Brief Catechetical Exposition of Christian Doctrine , 1645. SECTION 4, Q. 67

For many believers, it’s hard when your experience of the church doesn’t measure up. You may feel disappointed by the way the leadership handled one or several weighty matters. You may feel misunderstood by fellow members, or even by your pastor. You may feel crushed by a church that has asked more of you than you can give. Or, most painful of all, perhaps you’ve been a member for years and still feel invisible. All of these things can make one begin to “lose faith in the church.”