77 Bible Verses about Futility
Most Relevant Verses
My days pass as swiftly as a hand-loom; they come to their conclusion without hope. Remember that my life is a breath; my eyes won't go back to seeing good things.
Human beings born by women are short-lived and full of trouble. He springs up like a flower and then withers. Like a shadow, he disappears and doesn't last.
"LORD, let me know how my life ends, and the standard by which you will measure my days, whatever it is! Then I will know how transient my life is. Look, you have made my life span fit in your hand; It is nothing compared to yours. Surely every person at their best is a puff of wind. Interlude
A voice says, "Cry out!" So I asked, "What am I to cry out?" "All humanity is grass, and all its loyalty is like the flowers of the field. Grass withers and flowers fade away when the LORD's breath blows on them; surely the people are like grass.
You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
A person's life is like grass it blossoms like wild flowers, but when the wind blows through it, it withers away and no one remembers where it was.
In fact, people walk around as shadows. Surely, they busy themselves for nothing, heaping up possessions but not knowing who will get them.
It is useless to get up early and to stay up late, eating the food of exhausting labor truly he gives sleep to those he loves.
Is it not because of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies that people grow tired putting out fires, and nations weary themselves over nothing?
For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass. The flower in it drops off, and its beauty is gone. That is how the rich person will fade away in his pursuits.
For the wisdom of this world is nonsense in God's sight. For it is written, "He catches the wise with their own trickery," and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are worthless."
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Instead, their thoughts turned to worthless things, and their senseless hearts were darkened.
Therefore, I tell you and insist on in the Lord not to live any longer like the gentiles live, thinking worthless thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.
"We've heard about Moab's pride so very proud he became! his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence; therefore he is alone.
We have heard about Moab's pride he's very proud his haughtiness, his arrogance, his insolence, and his conceit. I know his gall," declares the LORD, "and it's futile; the boasting that they do is futile.
He displayed his mighty power with his arm. He scattered people who were proud in mind and heart. He pulled powerful rulers from their thrones and lifted up humble people.
This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind, who makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
Give us help against the enemy, because human help is useless.
Do not look to nobles, nor to mere human beings who cannot save. When they stop breathing, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans evaporate!
"Stop trusting in human beings, whose life breath is in their nostrils, for what are they really worth?"
"Oh, you stubborn children," declares the LORD, "who carry out plans but they are not mine, and who make alliances but not by my Spirit, piling sin upon sin. They set out to go down to Egypt, without asking my advice; taking refuge in Pharaoh's protection, and seeking shelter in Egypt's shadow. But Pharaoh's protection will become your shame, and sheltering in Egypt's shadow your longing.read more.
And it will turn out that his officials are at Zoan, and his envoys will reach Hanes. There is only loathsome destruction through a people that cannot benefit them, who bring neither help nor profit, but only shame and disgrace."
"How terrible it will be for those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the chariot, because there are so many, and in charioteers, because they are so strong but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or seek the LORD! Yet he is also wise and can bring disaster; he does not take back his words, but will rise up against the house of those who practice evil and against anyone who assists people who work iniquity. The Egyptians are men, not God, and their horses are physical, not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, anyone who assists will stumble, and the one who is helped will fall; and they will all perish together."
Our eyes failed, searching in vain for hope; we kept watching and looking for a nation that would not help.
They rejected the LORD's statutes, the covenant that he had made with their ancestors, and his warnings that he gave them. They pursued meaninglessness and became meaningless themselves as they followed the lifestyles of the nations that surrounded them, a practice that the LORD had warned them not to do.
Don't turn aside after useless things that cannot profit or deliver because they're useless.
This is what the LORD says: "What did your ancestors find wrong with me that they left me, and pursued worthless things, and so they became worthless?
Everyone is stupid and senseless. They follow worthless instruction from a piece of wood!
LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in a time of difficulty, to you the nations will come, and from the ends of the earth they'll say, "Surely our ancestors inherited deception, things that are worthless, and in which there is no profit."
Those who cling to vain idols leave behind the gracious love that could have been theirs.
"So when they advise you, "Ask the mediums your questions, and quiz the spiritists who chirp and mutter,' shouldn't a people instead be consulting their God and not the dead on behalf of those who are living for instruction and for testimony? Surely they are speaking like this because the truth hasn't dawned on them. "They'll pass through the land, while greatly distressed and hungry. When they are hungry, they'll become enraged, and they'll curse their king and their god. They'll turn their faces upwards,read more.
or they'll look toward the earth, but they'll see only distress and darkness, the gloom that comes from anguish, and then they'll be thrown into total darkness."
Instead, they crafted false prophecies and divination. ""They say, ""declares the LORD," even though the LORD didn't send them. And they hope for the fulfillment of their message. You've crafted a false prophesy and spoken deceptive divination, haven't you? But then you say, ""declares the LORD," although I haven't spoken a single word. ""Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says, "Because you've spoken falsehood and deceptions, I am therefore opposing you," declares the Lord GOD. read more.
My hand will oppose the prophets who see false visions and speak deceptive divinations. They won't be included with the council of my people, nor will they be entered into the registry of Israel's house or enter Israel's land. Then you'll know that I am the Lord GOD,
Truly the family idols talk nonsense and the diviners discern lies, describing delusional dreams. Since their comfort is vacuous, they wander off on their own like sheep, because there is no shepherd.
They kept on raving right through midday and until it was time to offer the evening sacrifice, but there was still no response. Nobody answered, and nobody paid attention.
When Moab appears, when he arrives upon the high place and comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail."
Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field. They can't speak! They must always be carried because they can't walk! Don't be afraid of them because they can do no harm, nor can they do any good."
For in the recent past Theudas appeared, claiming that he was important, and about 400 men joined him. He was killed, and all his followers were dispersed and disappeared. After that man, at the time of the census, Judas the Galilean appeared and got people to follow him. He, too, died, and all his followers were scattered. "I'm telling you to keep away from these men for now. Leave them alone, because if this plan or movement is of human origin, it will fail.
If you have died with the Messiah to the basic principles of the world, why are you submitting to its decrees as though you still lived in the world? "Don't handle this! Don't taste or touch that!" All of these things will be destroyed as they are used, because they are based on human commands and teachings. read more.
These things have the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion, humility, and harsh treatment of the body, but they have no value against self-indulgence.
Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly.
You said, "It is futile to serve God,' and, "What did we get out of it when we carried out his requirements and went about like mourners in the presence of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies?'
"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is empty, because they teach human rules as doctrines.'"
He told them, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is worthless, because they teach human rules as doctrines.'
Brothers, I couldn't talk to you as spiritual people but as worldly people, as mere infants in the Messiah. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, because you weren't ready for it. And you're still not ready! That's because you are still worldly. As long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, you are worldly and living by human standards, aren't you?
If anyone thinks that he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but instead deceives himself, his religion is worthless.
But avoid foolish controversies, arguments about genealogies, quarrels, and fights about the Law. These things are useless and worthless.
Your prophets look on your behalf; they see false and deceptive visions. They did not expose your sins in order to restore what had been captured. Instead, they crafted oracles for you that are false and misleading.
Do not let anyone deceive you with meaningless words, for it is because of these things that God becomes angry with those who disobey.
Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels cheat you out of the prize by rejoicing about what he has seen. Such a person is puffed up for no reason by his carnal mind.
Remind others about these things, and warn them before God not to argue over words. Arguing does not do any good but only destroys those who are listening.
By talking high-sounding nonsense and using sinful cravings of the flesh, they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error.
I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who abides in me while I abide in him produces much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
Whether a person builds on this foundation with gold, silver, expensive stones, wood, hay, or straw, the workmanship of each person will become evident, for the day of judgment will show what it is, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's action. If what a person has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. read more.
If his work is burned up, he will suffer loss. However, he himself will be saved, but it will be like going through fire.
because we have had the good news told to us as well as to them. But the message they heard did not help them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened to it.
"Everyone who keeps on hearing these messages of mine and never puts them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and battered that house, and it collapsed and its collapse was total."
When anyone hears the word about the kingdom yet doesn't understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on the stony ground, this is the person who hears the word and accepts it joyfully at once, but since he doesn't have any root in himself, he lasts for only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes along because of the word, he immediately falls away. read more.
As for what was sown among the thorn bushes, this is the person who hears the word, but the worries of life and the deceitful pleasures of wealth choke the word so that it can't produce a crop.
Keep on being obedient to the word, and not merely being hearers who deceive themselves. For if anyone hears the word but is not obedient to it, he is like a man who looks at himself in a mirror and studies himself carefully, and then goes off and immediately forgets what he looks like.
Do you want proof, you foolish person, that faith without actions is worthless?
This evil people that refuses to listen to my words, that stubbornly pursues their own desires, and that follows other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt that is not good for anything.
Why are the nations in an uproar, and their people involved in a vain plot?
The wicked person sees this and flies into a rage; his teeth gnash and wear away. The desire of the wicked will amount to nothing.
When a wicked person dies, his hope vanishes; and what he expected from his scheming comes to nothing.
This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "The broad wall of Babylon will be completely leveled, and its high gate set on fire. and so the nations toil for nothing, and the nations weary themselves only for fire."
and have nothing to do with the unfruitful actions that darkness produces. Instead, expose them for what they are.
"I said: "I've labored for nothing. I've exhausted my strength on futility and on emptiness.' Yet surely my recompense is with the LORD, and my reward is with my God.
For you know that it was not with perishable things like silver or gold that you have been ransomed from the worthless way of life handed down to you by your ancestors,
Therefore, if anyone stops associating with these people, he will become a special utensil, set apart for the owner's use, prepared for every good action.
