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Do you tend to start something and then lose interest half way through? Or perhaps you may tackle all physical things with diligence and great zeal in order to ensure completion of the task. Have you ever considered the great importance and vital significance of the spiritual gift of diligence?
According to Dictionary.com diligence means careful and persistent work or effort.
Similar meaning words (synonyms) include the following: conscientiousness, tenacity, industriousness, rigorousness, punctiliousness, dedication, meticulousness, carefulness, thoroughness, attentiveness, heedfulness, earnestness, intentness, and studiousness. In order to have or practice diligence therefore, one needs to carefully attend to a matter with energetic effort and focussed attention to detail in order to see the matter through until completion. To do all things well and to the best of our ability in a timely fashion is how I would sum up diligence. The opposite of diligence is slothfulness, laziness, slackness, or idleness; lacking zeal and commitment.
Some people complete everything they start whether they maintain interest or not. Not many can say this about their character. Mostly, people start a project thinking they will finish it because it holds their interest initially, that is until the going gets tough. There is a saying “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”. In Australia, this means they leave or abandon any effort to stay at it after a while. Do you know of someone who has many things left unfinished? Perhaps various pieces of needlework or tapestry, art or craft works, books, pieces of furniture they tried to make, gardening projects, painting the house, or cleaning up the spare room? How about you? Have you thought about asking for the gift of diligence from God? What does our Father have to say about diligence? Much!
In the scripture of 2 Peter 1:5-11 we are provided with spiritual guidance related to diligence — “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”. When diligence is applied in love God is pleased with our obedient efforts in faith. Hebrews 11:6 mentions “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him”.
Our Father greatly desires us to be diligent in all that we do without exception. God is perfectly diligent in everything He does and we are therefore to become like Him more and more with each passing day. That is our goal. Diligence is definitely mandatory in order to skilfully navigate this journey on our way to the Promised Land. Being half hearted will not get us there.
There are quite a few scriptures throughout the Bible making reference to diligence in order to have us think about and meditate upon how we need to transform into diligent firstfruits. Just a few to refer to and consider in more depth can be found in Colossians 3:23-24 “And whatever you do, do it heartily [with diligence], as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ”. And in Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might [in diligence]; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going”. Wisdom in Proverbs 8:17, “I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me diligently will find Me”. Proverbs 12:24, “The hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy man will be put to forced labour”. Proverbs 12:27, “The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting, but diligence is man’s precious possession”. Proverbs 21:5, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty”.
The Bible is full of diligent people for our learning and instruction showing that there is confirmation that diligence is key all throughout scripture. Just one account in the Old Testament to look at is that of King Hezekiah. His life is fascinating on many levels. If you open your Bible to 2 Chronicles 31:20-21 where it states “Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the LORD his God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and the commandment, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart [in diligence]. So he prospered”. High praise indeed from God, and he certainly did not learn Godly diligence through his wicked physical father King Ahaz either (2 Chronicles 28). Imagine growing up with a father such as this and despite the evil, negative influence, Hezekiah reigned righteously with zeal and great dedication to God. We can see that Hezekiah was given the gift of diligence, and had another 15 years added to his life.
More biblical examples that readily come to mind, giving us more to draw from in relation to diligence, include Noah, who preached to the people for 120 years and was commanded by God to build the ark — now is that great diligence or not?! (Genesis 6:3). Not only did he do this in humble and obedient patience, he did so while on the receiving end of great mocking and ridicule by all those in his community. God greatly blessed Noah, and his family of only 8 people in total were saved on the ark from the Great Flood.
Others to glean valuable wisdom from in relation to diligence are King David, Saul who became the Apostle Paul, Daniel, Elijah, and Elisha. Perhaps you are motivated to read further about their experiences for inspiration? The Bible is waiting for you to open it up and marvel at what God has provided for you to learn from. If you haven’t read the Bible for a while you have nothing to lose. Go on, blow the dust off your Bible and enjoy! In fact, you have everything to gain. Ask for God's help.
The Devastating Consequences From The Absence Of Diligence
An early example in the Bible of someone lacking diligence is that of Esau, who sold his birthright to his brother in a moment of weakness and carelessness (Genesis 25:30-34). Arrogance, pride, and self confidence in his own abilities and power were the very thing that brought him undone. He was far from humble in that moment when he hastily sold his birthright. Esau did not hold onto his precious possession and lost it when he should have shown diligence rather than foolish impatience. Such devastating consequences that deeply affected his relationships for the remainder of his life, and not only his life, but all his descendents living even today.
Maintaining diligence in all that we do is desirous, if we are to emulate Christ. We can always look to the perfect example of our older brother, Jesus Christ, within the harmony of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to get a clear understanding of His life on earth when just one moment without due diligence would have had disastrous and catastrophic consequences for the whole of humanity. Diligence in resisting sin and overcoming our carnal human nature is an amazing blessing if we have it. Desire it and seek it out with all your heart and mind. Pray for this daily along with more of God’s Holy Spirit for this is how we can achieve success in this life while preparing for God’s Kingdom.
What Does Physical Diligence And Spiritual Diligence Look Like?
Consider a typical day in the life of the diligent Christian eager to please our Father. A strong prayer life full of meaningful prayers for others and for ourselves to become more like Jesus Christ. Starting out strong before leaving home each morning to go to work, or before we begin our day, resolving to do the best we can and to aim to pray like Daniel three times a day on our knees and to be constant in prayer at all other times. This is best described as having God with you and sensing that He is always by your side, never leaving you. Our prayers need to sincerely come from our hearts and minds without measuring time. When we have shared all that we have to share, then we have prayed to Father as we should. Share absolutely everything.
Studying daily before or after work whenever time permits, so that this is relaxed and not hurried, to enable us to do our best while learning lessons gleaned from the Bible. It should be heartfelt rather than measured by time. There is no exact right amount of time to devote to God. If we are learning and studying from His Word it will be beneficial and make sense to us whether we read a Proverb and a Psalm each day and it could also be a chapter from a topic that gives us cause to search out, perhaps from practical lessons we are learning during our daily walk with God. Follow where God leads you in prayer so that your study will be exciting and time will seem to stand still.
Resisting and overcoming sin diligently is key to developing righteous character. This may seem overwhelming at times but if practiced daily, momentum will gather in this daily fight against our own carnal human nature until practice will indeed help in the pursuit of perfection to emulate our older Brother. Allow God’s Spirit, the Helper, to lead you. We have the tendency sometimes to shut His Spirit out, especially when we want our own way, or when we are tired, feel weak, ill, or stressed out. Be conscious of these times when you are not at your best. For me it is when I do not get enough sleep and when physically or mentally exhausted.
Being the best example we can be wherever we happen to be. Diligence in all things so that diligence becomes the norm, natural, what we do, and we are so used to the practice of it we reap the benefits and continue to do so. There are so many ways to make time work for us. I particularly enjoy listening to sermons anytime I get in the car, when doing household chores, when having the daily shower or visits to the restroom. Why not? By filling up our time and filling up our minds with spiritual food we are diligently adding to our knowledge and wisdom. If our minds are filling up on Christ, there is less room in them for filling up on worldly thoughts, which can then lead us into worldly ways. We definitely do not want that!
Every day is another opportunity to grow in diligence together with the companions of diligence — conviction, commitment and courage. Romans 12:10-13 highlights Christian behaviour that should be evident without any lagging in diligence. Now we just need to diligently attend to our daily duties with balance so that we can maintain this way of life without losing hope, burning out, or giving up. Don’t be like the person in the above example of “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”. Instead dig your heels in and resolve to be even more diligent in order to reach the Kingdom to attain eternal life. This takes care, dedication, planning, and daily consultation with our Father.
At the conclusion of the matter we can be greatly encouraged by the scripture found in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”. It does not get any better than this, knowing that God will do His part in our preparation for the Kingdom as long as we listen to our Father and strive daily with heartfelt diligence. Do not even let one day go by without due diligence because your very life depends on it. We are all in this together so let us all help each other in that humble, heartfelt love that John so beautifully speaks about in John 13:35. You can do this!