Haggai 1.

1-11

In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first
day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet
Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to
Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: Thus says the LORD of
hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild
the LORD’s house. Then the word of the LORD came by the prophet
Haggai, saying: Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your
panelled houses, while this house lies in ruins?Now therefore,
thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared. 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 you that earn wages earn
wages to put them into a bag with holes.

Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared. Go up
to the hills and bring wood and build the house, so that I may
take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the LORD. You have
looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought
it home, I blew it away. Why? says the LORD of hosts. Because
my house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your own
houses. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew,
and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a
drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the
oil, on what the soil produces, on human beings and animals, and
on all their labours.

Psalm 148.1, 7-15

1 Praise the Lord, praise the Lord from heaven: O praise him in
the heights.
7 O praise the Lord from the earth: praise him, you sea-monsters
and all deeps;
8 Fire and hail, mist and snow: and storm-wind fulfilling his
command;
9 Mountains and all hills: fruit trees and all cedars;
10 Beasts of the wild, and all cattle: creeping things and winged
birds;
11 Kings of the earth, and all peoples: princes, and all rulers of
the world;
12 Young men and maidens: old folk and children together.
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is
exalted.
14 His glory is above earth and heaven: and he has lifted high
the horn of his people.
15 Therefore he is the praise of all his servants: of the children of
Israel, a people that is near him. Praise the Lord.

Philippians 3.4-14

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have

more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to
the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to
righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss

because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss
because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard
them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in
him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the
law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness
from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of
his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like
him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from
the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the
goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has
made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it
my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and
straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal
for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Matthew 11.25-30

At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and
the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for
such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to
me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to
whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy
burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and
learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will
find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light.’