Whatever your hands find to do, do with [all] your strength, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.

For just as rain and snow fall from heaven, and do not return there without saturating the earth, and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat,

Sow righteousness for yourselves and reap faithful love; break up your untilled ground. It is time to seek the LORD until He comes and sends righteousness on you like the rain.

"The kingdom of God is like this," He said. "A man scatters seed on the ground;

The soil produces a crop by itself-- first the blade, then the head, and then the ripe grain on the head.

The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so the sower and reaper can rejoice together.

I sent you to reap what you didn't labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor."

Remember this: the person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.

proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching.

Indeed, I took all this to heart and explained it all: the righteous, the wise, and their works are in God's hands. People don't know whether [to expect] love or hate. Everything lies ahead of them.

You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough to be satisfied. You drink but never have enough to become drunk. You put on clothes but never have enough to get warm. The wage earner [puts his] wages into a bag with a hole in it."

Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house. Then I will be pleased with it and be glorified," says the LORD.

So on your account, the skies have withheld the dew and the land its crops.

I struck you-- all the work of your hands-- with blight, mildew, and hail, but you didn't turn to Me"-- the LORD's declaration.

Is there still seed left in the granary? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet produced. But from this day on I will bless you."

But now, I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days"-- the declaration of the LORD of Hosts.

"For they will sow in peace: the vine will yield its fruit, the land will yield its produce, and the skies will yield their dew. I will give the remnant of this people all these things as an inheritance.

But there were some of them, Cypriot and Cyrenian men, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Hellenists, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus.

The Lord's hand was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.

So, what is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given.

So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

Now the One who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness,

as you are enriched in every way for all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us.