I depend on God alone; I put my hope in him.

The hopes of good people lead to joy, but wicked people can look forward to nothing.

If it is, you have a bright future.

All of creation waits with eager longing for God to reveal his children.

in you, my God, I trust. Save me from the shame of defeat; don't let my enemies gloat over me!

May I perfectly obey your commandments and be spared the shame of defeat.

Give me strength, as you promised, and I shall live; don't let me be disappointed in my hope!

But Israel is saved by the LORD, and her victory lasts forever; her people will never be disgraced.' "

But their insults cannot hurt me because the Sovereign LORD gives me help. I brace myself to endure them. I know that I will not be disgraced,

Do not be afraid---you will not be disgraced again; you will not be humiliated. You will forget your unfaithfulness as a young wife, and your desperate loneliness as a widow.

This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us.

that the scripture speaks of: "Look, I place in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall. But whoever believes in him will not be disappointed."

I did boast of you to him, and you have not disappointed me. We have always spoken the truth to you, and in the same way the boast we made to Titus has proved true.

For I am not ashamed, even if I have boasted somewhat too much about the authority that the Lord has given us---authority to build you up, not to tear you down.

And pray also for me, that God will give me a message when I am ready to speak, so that I may speak boldly and make known the gospel's secret.

For the sake of this gospel I am an ambassador, though now I am in prison. Pray that I may be bold in speaking about the gospel as I should.

However, if you suffer because you are a Christian, don't be ashamed of it, but thank God that you bear Christ's name.

Yes, my children, remain in union with him, so that when he appears we may be full of courage and need not hide in shame from him on the Day he comes.

And my being in prison has given most of the believers more confidence in the Lord, so that they grow bolder all the time to preach the message fearlessly.

But thanks be to God! For in union with Christ we are always led by God as prisoners in Christ's victory procession. God uses us to make the knowledge about Christ spread everywhere like a sweet fragrance.

For those who are being lost, it is a deadly stench that kills; but for those who are being saved, it is a fragrance that brings life. Who, then, is capable for such a task?

Perhaps my life's blood is to be poured out like an offering on the sacrifice that your faith offers to God. If that is so, I am glad and share my joy with you all.

Nor must you surrender any part of yourselves to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes.

(I use everyday language because of the weakness of your natural selves.) At one time you surrendered yourselves entirely as slaves to impurity and wickedness for wicked purposes. In the same way you must now surrender yourselves entirely as slaves of righteousness for holy purposes.

So then, my friends, because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.

he bought you for a price. So use your bodies for God's glory.

and so he is pulled in two directions. An unmarried woman or a virgin concerns herself with the Lord's work, because she wants to be dedicated both in body and spirit; but a married woman concerns herself with worldly matters, because she wants to please her husband.

He died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but only for him who died and was raised to life for their sake.

May the God who gives us peace make you holy in every way and keep your whole being---spirit, soul, and body---free from every fault at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I am pulled in two directions. I want very much to leave this life and be with Christ, which is a far better thing;

but for your sake it is much more important that I remain alive.

"Now my heart is troubled---and what shall I say? Shall I say, 'Father, do not let this hour come upon me'? But that is why I came---so that I might go through this hour of suffering.

Father, bring glory to your name!" Then a voice spoke from heaven, "I have brought glory to it, and I will do so again."

(In saying this, Jesus was indicating the way in which Peter would die and bring glory to God.) Then Jesus said to him, "Follow me!"

But I reckon my own life to be worth nothing to me; I only want to complete my mission and finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to do, which is to declare the Good News about the grace of God.

But he answered, "What are you doing, crying like this and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be tied up in Jerusalem but even to die there for the sake of the Lord Jesus."

We do not live for ourselves only, and we do not die for ourselves only.

For Christ died and rose to life in order to be the Lord of the living and of the dead.

My friends, I face death every day! The pride I have in you, in our life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord, makes me declare this.

At all times we carry in our mortal bodies the death of Jesus, so that his life also may be seen in our bodies.

And now I am happy about my sufferings for you, for by means of my physical sufferings I am helping to complete what still remains of Christ's sufferings on behalf of his body, the church.

As for me, the hour has come for me to be sacrificed; the time is here for me to leave this life.

I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith.

And so I will always remind you of these matters, even though you already know them and are firmly grounded in the truth you have received.

I know that I shall soon put off this mortal body, as our Lord Jesus Christ plainly told me.