Book of Common Prayer

² My dear family, when you find yourselves tumbling into various trials and tribulations, learn to look at it with total joy, ³ because you know that, when your faith is put to the test, what comes out is patience. ⁴ What’s more, you must let patience have its complete effect, so that you may be complete and whole, not falling short in anything.

⁵ If any one of you falls short in wisdom, they should ask God for it, and it will be given them. God, after all, gives generously and ungrudgingly to all people. ⁶ But they should ask in faith, with no doubts. A person who doubts is like a wave of the sea which the wind blows and tosses about. ⁷ Someone like that should not suppose they will receive anything from the Lord, ⁸ since they are double-minded and unstable in everything they do.

¹⁶ Don’t be deceived, my dear family. ¹⁷ Every good gift, every perfect gift, comes down from above, from the father of lights. His steady light doesn’t vary. It doesn’t change and produce shadows. ¹⁸ He became our father by the word of truth; that was his firm decision, and the result is that we are a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

The parable of the rich fool

¹³ Someone from the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me!”

¹⁴ “Tell me, my good man,” replied Jesus, “who appointed me as a judge or arbitrator over you?

¹⁵ “Watch out,” he said to them, “and beware of all greed! Your life doesn’t consist of the sum total of your possessions.”

¹⁶ He told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a fine harvest. ¹⁷ ‘What shall I do?’ he said to himself. ‘I don’t have enough room to store my crops!

¹⁸ “ ‘I know!’ he said. ‘I’ll pull down my barns—and I’ll build bigger ones! Then I’ll be able to store all the corn and all my belongings there. ¹⁹ And I shall say to my soul, Soul, you’ve got many good things stored up for many years. Take it easy! Eat, drink, have a good time!’

²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This very night your life will be demanded of you! Now who’s going to have all the things you’ve got ready?’ ²¹ That’s how it is with someone who stores up things for himself and isn’t rich before God.