being content

⁵Let your behavior be without avarice; be content with what you are offered. For he himself has said, “I will not abandon you, and I will not neglect you.”

¹¹I am not saying this as if out of need. For I have learned that, in whatever state I am, it is sufficient. ¹²I know how to be humbled, and I know how to abound. I am prepared for anything, anywhere: either to be full or to be hungry, either to have abundance or to endure scarcity. ¹³Everything is possible in him who has strengthened me.

⁶But piety with sufficiency is great gain. ⁷For we brought nothing into this world, and there is no doubt that we can take nothing away. ⁸But, having nourishment and some kind of covering, we should be content with these.

³¹Therefore, do not choose to be anxious, saying: ‘What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and with what shall we be clothed?’ ³²For the Gentiles seek all these things. Yet your Father knows that you need all these things. ³³Therefore, seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added to you as well.

⁶But piety with sufficiency is great gain.

⁸I have made provision for the Lord always in my sight. For he is at my right hand, so that I may not be disturbed. ⁹Because of this, my heart has been joyful, and my tongue has exulted. Moreover, even my body will rest in hope. ¹⁰For you will not abandon my soul to Hell, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption. ¹¹You have made known to me the ways of life; you will fill me with joy by your countenance. At your right hand are delights, even to the end.

⁷Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.

¹²There is even another most burdensome infirmity, which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept to the harm of the owner.

²²And he said to his disciples: “And so I say to you: Do not choose to be anxious about your life, as to what you may eat, nor about your body, as to what you will wear.

¹Where do wars and contentions among you come from? Is it not from this: from your own desires, which battle within your members? ²You desire, and you do not have. You envy and you kill, and you are unable to obtain. You argue and you fight, and you do not have, because you do not ask. ³You ask and you do not receive, because you ask badly, so that you may use it toward your own desires. ⁴You adulterers! Do you not know that the friendship of this world is hostile to God? Therefore, whoever has chosen to be a friend of this world has been made into an enemy of God. ⁵Or do you think that Scripture says in vain: “The spirit which lives within you desires unto envy?” ⁶But he gives a greater grace. Therefore he says: “God resists the arrogant, but he gives grace to the humble.”

⁴⁶But why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say? ⁴⁷Anyone who comes to me, and listens to my words, and does them: I will reveal to you what he is like. ⁴⁸He is like a man building a house, who has dug deep and has laid the foundation upon the rock. Then, when the floodwaters came, the river was rushing against that house, and it was not able to move it. For it was founded upon the rock. ⁴⁹But whoever hears and does not do: he is like a man building his house upon the soil, without a foundation. The river rushed against it, and it soon fell down, and the ruin of that house was great.”

³⁰The well-being of the heart is life for the flesh. But envy is decay for the bones.

¹¹I am not saying this as if out of need. For I have learned that, in whatever state I am, it is sufficient.