Diligence Has Its Rewards

The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. – Proverbs 13:4

Diligence – constant in the effort to accomplish something; attentive and persistent in doing anything; done and pursued with persevering attention; painstaking

It’s tough to remain where God has put us sometimes. It is often very easy to come up with a million excuses why we shouldn’t stay within the perimeter of God’s plan for our lives. Things always seem to be looking better down the road and in the next town. If only we can get away and leave all God’s plan behind, life will be easier. Who wants baggage? Who needs stress? Life is hard enough without all the responsibility that comes with it. How do they expect me to cope? They don’t understand – they are not walking in my shoes. The list of excuses could go on forever - lame reasons why we would not buckle down and bloom where we are planted; ridiculous ideas and notions that new is always better.

Diligence is a very rare commodity today. The world is filled with complainers and moaners – people gripping on how they have it bad and how everything that is going wrong in their lives is somebody else’s fault. How people are quick to lay the responsibility of their irresponsibility on others. How the inability to buckle down and apply themselves whole-heartedly as an employee, as a spouse or as a father is not of their own doing. How constant murmuring and complaining about everyone and everything has become second nature. The bible tells us in Philippians 2:14 that we do everything without complaining and arguing. We need to stop complaining about our employers and other employees. If you cannot be diligent in your current job, I doubt that you will be diligent in the next. If you cannot be trusted where God has placed you now, God helps whoever takes you on afterwards!

When we are diligent, we are rewarded and we are promoted. Lack of diligence often will manifest itself as instability – emotionally, physically and spiritually. An attitude that portrays lack of diligence rarely overcomes adversity. The minute non-diligence senses opposition and difficulty, it flees in the opposite direction. In John Hagee’s book The Seven Secrets, he mentions that without resistance, ships won’t float, neither will planes fly and most interestingly – without resistance of gravity, men can’t walk! To the diligent, adversity is seen as an opportunity not a deterrent.

I am a strong believer that diligence has a lot to do with maturity and where one’s faith lies. When we begin to see everything we do for our employer, our children and our church and our families as opportunities to serve God and have God glorified through us, it changes how diligent we are.