When things are going well, be grateful for your blessings, and in times of adversity consider this: God has made both of them, so that we cannot predict with confidence what the future holds.
Commit your way to the Lord; place your trust in him, and he will act. He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, and the justice of your cause, like the noonday.
Let no one regard you with contempt because of your youth, but serve as an example to the believers in your speech and conduct, in your love, your faith, and your purity.
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may show yourselves blameless and beyond reproach, children of God without spot in the midst of an evil and depraved generation, among which you shine like lights in the world as you hold fast tenaciously to the word of life.
The heart is more deceitful than any other thing, and it is also perverse. Who can uncover its secrets? I, the Lord, search the heart and probe the mind to reward all according to their conduct and as their deeds deserve.
Now we know that if the earthly tent in which we live is destroyed, we have a dwelling prepared for us by God, a dwelling in the heavens, not made with human hands, that will be eternal.
My son, do not forget my teaching, but cherish my commandments in your heart, for they will bring you length of days, more years of life, and an abundance of prosperity.
Therefore, heed my words. Do not be concerned about your life and what you will have to eat or drink, or about your body and what you will wear. Surely life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.
“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not allow myself to be dominated by anything.
He has made everything suitable for its time, and he has given men a sense of past and future, but they never have the slightest comprehension of what God has wrought from beginning to end.
Your kindness is a greater joy than life itself; thus my lips will speak your praise. I will bless you all my life; with uplifted hands I will call on your name.
Blessed is the man who perseveres when he is tempted, for when he has been proven, he will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
For so has the Lord commanded us to do, saying, ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles so that you may bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth.’