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100 Bible Verses about Wasting Time

Ephesians 5:16-17 ESV / 521 helpful votes

Making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Colossians 3:23 ESV / 208 helpful votes

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Proverbs 6:9-11 ESV / 181 helpful votes

How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

Psalm 90:12 ESV / 153 helpful votes

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV / 143 helpful votes

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

James 4:14 ESV / 134 helpful votes

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Proverbs 6:6-8 ESV / 134 helpful votes

Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

Colossians 4:5-6 ESV / 120 helpful votes

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 74 helpful votes

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Ephesians 4:28 ESV / 73 helpful votes

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Hosea 10:12 ESV / 71 helpful votes

Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

1 Peter 4:3 ESV / 70 helpful votes

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

Ephesians 5:15-17 ESV / 64 helpful votes

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Proverbs 24:30-34 ESV / 61 helpful votes

I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

Proverbs 26:14 ESV / 59 helpful votes

As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed.

Colossians 4:5 ESV / 52 helpful votes

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

John 9:4 ESV / 43 helpful votes

We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.

Matthew 25:14-30 ESV / 35 helpful votes

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. ...

Proverbs 14:23 ESV / 33 helpful votes

In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.

Psalm 39:4-5 ESV / 33 helpful votes

“O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah

Proverbs 12:11 ESV / 30 helpful votes

Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.

Romans 8:37 ESV / 28 helpful votes

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV / 28 helpful votes

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Proverbs 18:9 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.

Psalm 39:5 ESV / 27 helpful votes

Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah

James 4:17 ESV / 26 helpful votes

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 25 helpful votes

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Proverbs 12:24 ESV / 25 helpful votes

The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 22 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

Proverbs 21:25 ESV / 22 helpful votes

The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.

Proverbs 20:4 ESV / 22 helpful votes

The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.

Proverbs 19:15 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.

Psalm 31:14-15 ESV / 22 helpful votes

But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!

John 3:16 ESV / 21 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Proverbs 27:1 ESV / 21 helpful votes

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

Proverbs 20:13 ESV / 21 helpful votes

Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.

Colossians 2:1-23 ESV / 20 helpful votes

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. ...

Romans 12:2 ESV / 20 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

James 1:5 ESV / 19 helpful votes

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

Hebrews 12:1-29 ESV / 19 helpful votes

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. ...

1 Timothy 6:17 ESV / 19 helpful votes

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

Galatians 6:10 ESV / 18 helpful votes

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Isaiah 2:1-22 ESV / 18 helpful votes

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. ...

John 3:16-17 ESV / 17 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV / 16 helpful votes

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Acts 1:8 ESV / 16 helpful votes

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

John 1:1 ESV / 16 helpful votes

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Ephesians 5:16 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Matthew 6:19-21 ESV / 15 helpful votes

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Proverbs 13:4 ESV / 15 helpful votes

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

Proverbs 12:27 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth.

Proverbs 6:9 ESV / 15 helpful votes

How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?

Romans 12:11 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

John 6:27 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

Luke 1:37 ESV / 14 helpful votes

For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Matthew 6:33-34 ESV / 14 helpful votes

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 6:1-34 ESV / 14 helpful votes

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ...

Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 ESV / 14 helpful votes

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ...

Proverbs 21:5 ESV / 14 helpful votes

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.

Proverbs 15:19 ESV / 14 helpful votes

The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway.

John 6:12 ESV / 13 helpful votes

And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”

Matthew 19:26 ESV / 13 helpful votes

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

2 Timothy 3:1 ESV / 12 helpful votes

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

Philippians 4:8 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Ephesians 5:15-16 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

2 Corinthians 6:2 ESV / 12 helpful votes

For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Romans 13:11 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

Mark 6:1-56 ESV / 12 helpful votes

He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. ...

Isaiah 9:6 ESV / 12 helpful votes

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Genesis 2:15 ESV / 12 helpful votes

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

1 Peter 5:7 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV / 11 helpful votes

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV / 11 helpful votes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Matthew 7:6 ESV / 11 helpful votes

“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

Matthew 6:25 ESV / 11 helpful votes

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Proverbs 23:9 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words.

Proverbs 6:4 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;

Psalm 31:15 ESV / 11 helpful votes

My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 10 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Colossians 4:1-18 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. ...

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 10 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

1 Corinthians 7:25-40 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, ...

Proverbs 16:9 ESV / 10 helpful votes

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Proverbs 9:7 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.

Proverbs 4:23 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Job 14:1 ESV / 10 helpful votes

“Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.

Job 1:21 ESV / 10 helpful votes

And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Exodus 12:14-51 ESV / 10 helpful votes

“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. ...

1 John 2:15-17 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

2 Peter 3:8 ESV / 9 helpful votes

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

James 4:3 ESV / 9 helpful votes

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

1 Timothy 1:1-20 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. ...

Romans 8:14 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Hebrews 11:6 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Ephesians 5:17 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Galatians 6:9 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

1 Corinthians 7:1-9 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ...

1 Timothy 3:2 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

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