What is diligence?
Diligence is working hard.
In your Christian walk, there’s the place of hard work. Most people just want to hear “You will be rich,” in church, and then when they get home, they expect the riches to float down to them from heaven.
I don’t dispute that God is a miracle working God, and at times, we need that miracle of money floating down to us but at other times we just have to put our hands to the wheel and labour. Jesus fed 5000 men by miraculous supply. That is true. But when Peter needed a miracle, Jesus didn’t call the fish into Peter’s boat, as one would have thought. He sent Peter back to fish and Peter obeyed.
Luke 5:4-6 When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” 6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.
There is the place of diligence and the place of obedience in the Christian walk.
Job 36:11 If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
Obey and serve. Our God is a hard-working God, so how can we, as His children, be any different? What is it that God has placed in your hand? Are you a cashier? Be the best cashier. Are you a street sweeper? Be the best street sweeper. Are you a tailor? Sew the best clothes in town. Why?
Proverbs 22:29 Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.
Diligence is defined as careful and persistent work. So as soon as you are working persistently, you will get the rewards of God.
Colossians 3:23 23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
Everything we are to do, is always as to God and not to men. Because the God we serve is Lord of all our lives. He also said don’t be rebellious towards your leader, that is compared with witchcraft. So don’t look at your boss as someone out to ruin your life, no matter how they behave, treat them with respect. That’s what the Bible teaches us.
Perhaps you feel as if your boss is out to get you, but maybe you aren’t doing your job. A lot of the time, we need to deal with ourselves before we point the finger to other people. Someone who is diligent doesn’t do something, get tired and then stop.
When you are diligent, you are persistent. You are meticulous. You do something, and you do it well. If you are someone who is standing before Kings, that means you really did something special.
To stand out in this world, we need diligence. The sad thing these days is that Christians are relying on the grace of God to get them out of working hard. Unbelievers use Kingdom principles, (diligence, obedience, obedience to authorities, giving etc) and they are making it and believers just want to pray and hope for the best.
What is that about?
In Matthew 25, from verse 14, Jesus tells a parable about the talents. To paraphrase it, a man, the Master was going away to a far country, so he gave each of his three servants talents to look after. To the first servant, he gave 5 talents, the second servant he gave two and the last he gave one. When he returned, the one who had been given 5 talents had gained 5 more and the one who had been given two had also gained two more. The Master called those two servants “faithful servants” and he blessed them with cities because they had been faithful. Now that final servant, instead of doing anything with his talent, he hid it in the ground and gave it back to the Master as one. If you can guess it, the Master was not pleased. He cast that “unfaithful” servant out and took that one talent from him.
What I learned from this parable is that no matter what God places in your hand, keep working on it. It might not seem like much, be faithful in it and before long, your own hard work will bring some dividends. But then, suddenly, the blessing of God will come upon your hard work and multiply it to what you never imagined.
Diligence is not just in work. Maybe you don’t have a job; be diligent at home, clean the house, make sure everything is in order. Don’t be lazy, God hates idleness. As a student, do your assignments, work hard in your courses. In church, serve God in a unit, maybe as an usher or someone in security. You have a passion for teaching and you love the Word of God, why not teach in the children’s church? Just make sure you’re doing something and doing it well.
Remember, God blesses the labour of our hands, and if our hands are not labouring, what is there to bless?
At the end of the day, diligence all boils down to a willingness to serve. Firstly to serve God, and then to serve others. Once you are able to do those two things, joyfully mind you, God is ever faithful to bless you.
May God grant us all the grace to be diligent in our lives.
You are blessed and loved.
If you have not given your life to Christ, what are you waiting for? He loves you and He is waiting for you.
Love…
SomeYoungChristianQueen 💙