Job 7, 8
1 “Is not the life of a man on earth an ordeal?
Is not his life also like the life of a hired man working by the day,
2 Or like a servant who fears his master,
Or like one who grasps for a shadow,
Or like a hired man who eagerly looks for his wages?
3 So I have been enduring months of futility,
And agonizing nights have been appointed for me.
4 When I lie down, I say, ‘When will it be day?’
When I arise, I say, ‘When will it be evening?’
I am full of pains from evening to morning.
5 My body is covered with loathsome worms,
And I am wasting away
As I scrape off clods of dust from my eruption.
6 “My life is lighter than speech
And perishes with an empty hope.
7 Remember then, my life is a breath,
And my eye will no longer return to see good.
8 The eye of him who sees me will not see me again;
Your eyes are on me, I am no more.
9 I am like the cloud that cleared away from the sky,
For if a man goes down to Hades, he shall not come up again.
10 He shall not return to his own house,
Nor shall his place know him anymore.
11 “Now then, neither will I restrain my mouth.
I will speak by necessity,
Because I will disclose the bitterness of my soul
When I am oppressed.
12 Am I a sea, or a serpent,
That You set a guard over me?
13 I said, ‘My bed will comfort me,
And on my couch I will counsel privately with myself.’
14 You scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions.
15 You will separate life from my spirit,
Yet keep my bones from death.
16 For I will not live forever, that I should patiently endure.
Let me alone, for my life is vain.
17 “What is man, that You should exalt him,
Or that You should set Your heart on him,
18 Or that You should visit him every morning
And judge him till the time of rest?
19 How long will You neither let me alone,
Nor let me go until I swallow my saliva in grief?
20 If I have sinned, what can I do to You,
O You who understand the heart of men?
Why have You set me as Your accuser?
Why am I a burden to You?
21 Why then have You not forgotten my lawlessness
And purged my sin?
But now I will depart into the earth,
And in the morning I will no longer be here.”
Bildad: The Ungodly Will Perish
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 “How long will you speak these things,
And the breath of your mouth be filled with words?
3 Will the Lord do wrong when He judges,
Or will He who made all things trouble righteousness?
4 If your sons sinned against Him,
He sent them away because of their lawlessness.
5 But come early in the morning
And make your supplication to the Lord Almighty.
6 If you are pure and true, He will hear your supplication
And restore to you the dwelling of the righteous.
7 Though your beginning shall be small,
Your latter end will be abundantly great.
8 For inquire about the former generation
And search among the race of our fathers;
9 For we are of yesterday and know nothing,
Because our life on earth is a shadow.
10 Will they not teach you and proclaim to you,
And bring forth words from their heart?
11 “Can the papyrus bloom without water,
Or can the reeds flourish without moisture?
12 While it is still on the root and not yet harvested,
Does not any vegetation wither before it receives moisture?
13 So shall be the end of all who forget the Lord,
For the hope of the ungodly shall perish.
14 For his house shall be without inhabitants,
And his tent shall turn out to be a spider’s web.
15 If he props up his house, it will not stand,
And when he takes hold of it, it will not endure.
16 For it is moist under the sun,
And his branch shall come forth out of his rottenness.
17 He shall lie down upon a pile of rocks
And shall live in the midst of flints.
18 If he is swallowed up, his place shall deny him.
You have not seen such things,
19 “That such is the destruction of the ungodly,
And out of the earth another will grow up again.
20 For the Lord will not cast off the innocent,
Nor will He accept any gift of an ungodly man.
21 He will fill the mouth of the true with laughter
And their lips with thanksgiving.
22 But their enemies will be clothed with shame,
And the dwelling of an ungodly man will be no more.”
Psalm 33:1–11
1 By David; when he changed his countenance before Abimelech, who let him go, and he departed.
2 I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
3 My soul shall be praised in the Lord;
Let the gentle hear, and be glad.
4 Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt His name together.
5 I sought the Lord, and He heard me;
And He delivered me from all my sojourning.
6 Come to Him, and be enlightened,
And your face shall never be ashamed.
7 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him,
And saved him from all his afflictions.
8 The Angel of the Lord shall encamp around those who fear Him,
And He will deliver them.
9 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who hopes in Him.
10 Fear the Lord, you His saints,
For there is no want for those who fear Him.
11 Rich men turned poor and went hungry;
But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.
Proverbs 6:32–36
32 Shall anyone bind fire to his bosom
And his garments not burn?
33 Or will anyone walk about on coals of fire
And not burn his feet?
34 Likewise is the one who goes in to a married woman;
He shall not be guiltless, nor any who touch her.
35 It is not surprising if anyone who steals is caught,
For he steals that he may fill his hungry soul;
36 But if he is caught, he will repay sevenfold,
And by giving all his goods, he shall deliver himself.
Romans 6
6 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be [a]done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been [b]freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, [c]reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as [d]instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were [e]delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness [f]for holiness.20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit [g]to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the [h]gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
At the very end you mentioned a Desert Father quote concerning distraction. That’s like my problem! However I typed what he said, but I don’t know how to spell the Desert Fathers name. Would you mind mentioning it for me? Thank you 🤗
Evagrius of Pontus or Evagrius the Solitary – “If you are bothered by a distracting thought, it is not helpful to thrash around in your prayer about it. Simply repent. This will give your spiritual sword a sharper edge.”