plans for the future

¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think over you, says the Lord: thoughts of peace and not of affliction, so that I may give you patience and an end.

³Open your works to the Lord, and your intentions will be set in order.

¹³But who are you to judge your neighbor? Consider this, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into that city, and certainly we will spend a year there, and we will do business, and we will make our profit,” ¹⁴consider that you do not know what will be tomorrow. ¹⁵For what is your life? It is a mist that appears for a brief time, and afterwards will vanish away. So what you ought to say is: “If the Lord wills,” or, “If we live,” we will do this or that. ¹⁶But now you exult in your arrogance. All such exultation is wicked.

²¹There are many intentions in the heart of a man. But the will of the Lord shall stand firm.

⁸For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways, says the Lord. ⁹For just as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so also are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.

⁵Have confidence in the Lord with all your heart, and do not depend upon your own prudence.

³²Do not be afraid, little flock; for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.

¹And know this: that in the last days perilous times will press near. ²Men will be lovers of themselves, greedy, self-exalting, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, ³without affection, without peace, false accusers, unchaste, cruel, without kindness, ⁴traitorous, reckless, self-important, loving pleasure more than God, ⁵even having the appearance of piety while rejecting its virtue. And so, avoid them. ⁶For among these are ones who penetrate houses and lead away, like captives, foolish women burdened with sins, who are led away by means of various desires,

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with that future glory which shall be revealed in us.

⁶I am confident of this very thing: that he who has begun this good work in you will perfect it, unto the day of Christ Jesus.

²⁵And so I say to you, do not be anxious about your life, as to what you will eat, nor about your body, as to what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Consider the birds of the air, how they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of much greater value than they are? ²⁷And which of you, by thinking, is able to add one cubit to his stature? ²⁸And as for clothing, why are you anxious? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither work nor weave. ²⁹But I say to you, that not even Solomon, in all his glory, was arrayed like one of these. ³⁰So if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and cast into the oven tomorrow, how much more will he care for you, O little in faith?

¹³But who are you to judge your neighbor? Consider this, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into that city, and certainly we will spend a year there, and we will do business, and we will make our profit,” ¹⁴consider that you do not know what will be tomorrow. ¹⁵For what is your life? It is a mist that appears for a brief time, and afterwards will vanish away. So what you ought to say is: “If the Lord wills,” or, “If we live,” we will do this or that. ¹⁶But now you exult in your arrogance. All such exultation is wicked. ¹⁷Therefore, he who knows that he ought to do a good thing, and does not do it, for him it is a sin.