PSALM 90:1-17
1 LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
3 You turn man to destruction, and say, “Return, O children of men.”
4 For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night.
5 You carry them away like a flood; they are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up:
6 In the morning it flourishes and grows up; in the evening it is cut down and withers.
7 For we have been consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified.
8 You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.
9 For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; we finish our years like a sigh.
10 The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.
12 So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O LORD! How long? And have compassion on Your servants.
14 Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days!
15 Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil.
16 Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children.
17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.PSALM 126:5-6
5 Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.
6 He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
PROVERBS 6:6-15
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise,
7 Which, having no captain, overseer or ruler,
8 Provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.
9 How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep–
11 So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.
12 A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth;
13 He winks with his eyes, he shuffles his feet, he points with his fingers;
14 Perversity is in his heart, he devises evil continually, he sows discord.
15 Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.
PROVERBS 10:16,26
16 The labor of the righteous leads to life, the wages of the wicked to sin.
26 As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy man to those who send him.
PROVERBS 12:14,24
14 A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth, and the recompense of a man’s hands will be rendered to him.
24 The hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy man will be put to forced labor.
PROVERBS 21:25
25 The desire of the lazy man kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.
PROVERBS 22:29
29 Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before unknown men.
PROVERBS 24:30-34
30 I went by the field of the lazy man, and by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding;
31 And there it was, all overgrown with thorns; its surface was covered with nettles; its stone wall was broken down.
32 When I saw it, I considered it well; I looked on it and received instruction:
33 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest;
34 So shall your poverty come like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.
PROVERBS 27:23-27
23 Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and attend to your herds;
24 For riches are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations.
25 When the hay is removed, and the tender grass shows itself, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered in,
26 The lambs will provide your clothing, and the goats the price of a field;
27 You shall have enough goats’ milk for your food, for the food of your household, and the nourishment of your maidservants.
PROVERBS 30:24-28
24 There are four things which are little on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise:
25 The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer;
26 The rock badgers are a feeble folk, yet they make their homes in the crags;
27 The locusts have no king, yet they all advance in ranks;
28 The spider skillfully grasps with its hands, and it is in kings’ palaces.
ECCLESIASTES 3:9-13
9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors?
10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives,
13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor– it is the gift of God.
ECCLESIASTES 2:3-26
3 I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives.
4 I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards.
5 I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
6 I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove.
7 I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me.
8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds.
9 So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.
10 Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my reward from all my labor.
11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.
12 Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what can the man do who succeeds the king?– Only what he has already done.
13 Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.
14 The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I myself perceived that the same event happens to them all.
15 So I said in my heart, “As it happens to the fool, it also happens to me, and why was I then more wise?” Then I said in my heart, “This also is vanity.”
16 For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever, since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. And how does a wise man die? As the fool!
17 Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind.
18 Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me.
19 And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.
20 Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun.
21 For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
22 For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun?
23 For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.
24 Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God.
25 For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?
26 For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that he may give to him who is good before God. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.
ECCLESIASTES 3:1-15
1 To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to gain, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
7 A time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors?
10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives,
13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor– it is the gift of God.
14 I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him.
15 That which is has already been, and what is to be has already been; and God requires an account of what is past.
ECCLESIASTES 9:10
10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.
ECCLESIASTES 10:18
18 Because of laziness the building decays, and through idleness of hands the house leaks.
ECCLESIASTES 11:5-6
5 As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything.
6 In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand; for you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
JOHN 15:1-16
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
8 “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13 “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
14 “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
15 “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
16 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
EPHESIANS 4:11-16
11 … He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head– Christ–
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
EPHESIANS 4:28
28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
COLOSSIANS 3:23-25
23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,
24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.
25 But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.
1 THESSALONIANS 4:10-12
… we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more;
11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,
12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.
1 PETER 1:17
17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear;
JAMES 1:25,27
25 … he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
JAMES 2:24-26
24 … a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
JAMES 5:19-20
19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back,
20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
ISAIAH 55:8-12
8 “… My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
12 “For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.