Duties toward God ~ Sirach 2

Sirach

Chapter 2

~ My child, when you come to serve the LORD, prepare yourself for testing.

~Be sincere of heart and steadfast, undisturbed in time of adversity.

~Cling to him, forsake him not; thus will your future be great.

~Accept whatever befalls you, in times of humiliation be patient;

~For in fire gold is tested, and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation.

~Trust God and he will help you; make straight your ways and hope in him.

~You who fear the LORD, wait for his mercy, do not stray or else you may fall.

~You who fear the LORD, trust him, and your reward will not be lost.

~You who fear the LORD, hope for good things, for lasting joy and mercy.

~Study the generations long past and understand; has anyone hoped in the LORD and been disappointed? Has anyone persevered in his fear and been forsaken? 

Has anyone called upon him and been rebuffed?

~Compassionate and merciful is the LORD; he forgives sins, he saves in time of trouble.

~Woe to craven hearts and drooping hands, to the sinner who treads a double path!

~Woe to the faint of heart who trust not, who therefore will have no shelter!

~Woe to you who have lost hope! what will you do at the visitation of the LORD?

~Those who fear the LORD disobey not his words; those who love him keep his ways.

~Those who fear the LORD seek to please him, those who love him are filled with his law.

~Those who fear the LORD prepare their hearts and humble themselves before him.

~Let us fall into the hands of the LORD and not into the hands of men, For equal to his majesty is the mercy that he shows.