100 Bible Verses about Procrastination

Proverbs 13:4 ESV / 793 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 5:15-17 ESV / 559 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 12:24 ESV / 509 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 20:4 ESV / 465 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 27:1 ESV / 388 helpful votes

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

James 4:17 ESV / 349 helpful votes

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

Luke 9:59-62 ESV / 324 helpful votes

To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 262 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Hebrews 12:11 ESV / 226 helpful votes

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 210 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 12:25 ESV / 193 helpful votes

Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.

John 9:4 ESV / 192 helpful votes

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

Luke 12:40 ESV / 191 helpful votes

You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Luke 12:35 ESV / 191 helpful votes

“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning,

Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV / 179 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 11:4 ESV / 176 helpful votes

He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

Proverbs 14:23 ESV / 159 helpful votes

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

Galatians 6:9 ESV / 147 helpful votes

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

Romans 7:20-21 ESV / 144 helpful votes

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

Proverbs 10:4 ESV / 136 helpful votes

A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

Proverbs 18:9 ESV / 130 helpful votes

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

1 Thessalonians 5:2 ESV / 115 helpful votes

For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

Proverbs 3:28 ESV / 114 helpful votes

Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you.

1 Corinthians 14:40 ESV / 104 helpful votes

But all things should be done decently and in order.

Psalm 119:60 ESV / 104 helpful votes

I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments.

2 Corinthians 8:10-14 ESV / 99 helpful votes

And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.

Proverbs 20:13 ESV / 97 helpful votes

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

Colossians 4:5 ESV / 88 helpful votes

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

2 Timothy 4:2 ESV / 87 helpful votes

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

Acts 24:25 ESV / 83 helpful votes

And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.”

Proverbs 5:23 ESV / 83 helpful votes

He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.

Ezekiel 12:28 ESV / 79 helpful votes

Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: None of my words will be delayed any longer, but the word that I speak will be performed, declares the Lord God.”

Hosea 10:12 ESV / 78 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.

Hebrews 3:7-19 ESV / 71 helpful votes

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” ...

Psalm 90:12 ESV / 71 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 10:5 ESV / 68 helpful votes

He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV / 67 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.

Exodus 22:29 ESV / 67 helpful votes

“You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me.

Colossians 3:23 ESV / 64 helpful votes

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

2 Corinthians 6:2 ESV / 62 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.

Galatians 2:20 ESV / 60 helpful votes

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Proverbs 22:13 ESV / 60 helpful votes

The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!”

Proverbs 24:30-34 ESV / 58 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 21:17 ESV / 58 helpful votes

Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.

Proverbs 6:6-8 ESV / 58 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.

Psalm 39:4-5 ESV / 54 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 / 52 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 15:19 ESV / 51 helpful votes

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

James 4:13-15 ESV / 50 helpful votes

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 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. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Matthew 25:2-13 ESV / 50 helpful votes

Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ...

Haggai 1:4-6 ESV / 49 helpful votes

“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

Colossians 3:23-24 ESV / 42 helpful votes

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Isaiah 41:10 ESV / 38 helpful votes

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Judges 18:9 ESV / 38 helpful votes

They said, “Arise, and let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And will you do nothing? Do not be slow to go, to enter in and possess the land.

Luke 1:37 ESV / 37 helpful votes

For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Isaiah 55:6 ESV / 37 helpful votes

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;

Ezekiel 12:22 ESV / 36 helpful votes

“Son of man, what is this proverb that you have about the land of Israel, saying, ‘The days grow long, and every vision comes to nothing’?

Psalm 121:1-8 ESV / 36 helpful votes

A Song of Ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. ...

Job 7:13-14 ESV / 31 helpful votes

When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’ then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions,

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV / 30 helpful votes

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

John 14:6 ESV / 30 helpful votes

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Psalm 132:3-5 ESV / 30 helpful votes

“I will not enter my house or get into my bed, I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Luke 12:46-48 ESV / 27 helpful votes

The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 ESV / 27 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; ...

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 26 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,

James 1:5 ESV / 26 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.

1 Corinthians 15:32 ESV / 26 helpful votes

What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

Matthew 19:26 ESV / 26 helpful votes

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

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 26 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.

Deuteronomy 23:21 ESV / 26 helpful votes

“If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin.

Acts 8:36 ESV / 25 helpful votes

And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”

John 16:33 ESV / 25 helpful votes

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Ecclesiastes 12:1 ESV / 25 helpful votes

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

Proverbs 19:15-22:15 ESV / 25 helpful votes

Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger. Whoever keeps the commandment keeps his life; he who despises his ways will die. Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death. A man of great wrath will pay the penalty, for if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again. ...

Proverbs 3:5 ESV / 25 helpful votes

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

Galatians 5:24-6:2 ESV / 24 helpful votes

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV / 24 helpful votes

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 24 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.

Romans 12:1 ESV / 24 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Romans 8:1-39 ESV / 24 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ...

Luke 14:21 ESV / 24 helpful votes

So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’

Luke 13:25 ESV / 24 helpful votes

When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’

Matthew 5:25 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.

Amos 6:1-14 ESV / 24 helpful votes

“Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel comes! Pass over to Calneh, and see, and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than your territory, O you who put far away the day of disaster and bring near the seat of violence? “Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music, ...

Jeremiah 22:1-23:40 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Thus says the Lord: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. ...

Jeremiah 13:16 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains, and while you look for light he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness.

Jeremiah 2:5-32 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Thus says the Lord: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’ And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit. “Therefore I still contend with you, declares the Lord, and with your children's children I will contend. ...

Ecclesiastes 10:17-18 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness! Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks.

Ecclesiastes 5:4 ESV / 24 helpful votes

When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.

Proverbs 28:22-27 ESV / 24 helpful votes

A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him. Whoever rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue. Whoever robs his father or his mother and says, “That is no transgression,” is a companion to a man who destroys. A greedy man stirs up strife, but the one who trusts in the Lord will be enriched. Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. ...

Proverbs 13:11-22 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded. The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death. Good sense wins favor, but the way of the treacherous is their ruin. ...

Proverbs 11:29 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.

Psalm 95:7-8 ESV / 24 helpful votes

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

Psalm 46:10 ESV / 24 helpful votes

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

Psalm 27:8 ESV / 24 helpful votes

You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”

1 Kings 19:20-21 ESV / 24 helpful votes

And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.

Deuteronomy 1:41 ESV / 24 helpful votes

“Then you answered me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every one of you fastened on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up into the hill country.

Exodus 8:10 ESV / 24 helpful votes

And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.

Genesis 19:16 ESV / 24 helpful votes

But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-2 Thessalonians 3:18 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. ...

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