The Hand of the Diligent

Mere talk  /mîr – tôk/ – you are left with a wandering desire and are not going to be satisfied when you are forced to finally see what’s really there:  Poverty.  (See Prov. 14:23 & Ecc. 6:9)

  

  Let’s talk for a moment about “Mere talk”.  It’s not too difficult to imagine what this looks like in everyday life.  Simply stated, a person has a goal that they want to reach –or perhaps a desire they wish they could attain, or some standard they esteem- and instead of taking steps to reach it, all they do is talk about doing that thing, or daydream until the opportunity is well past. 

    It is far better for a person to take a hard look at what is right in front of them and face it head-on than to perpetually dream about what could be.  When we get so caught-up daydreaming that we forget to take any practical steps in life, that is when we will, most likely, wake up one day and see a boat-load of missed opportunities.  Because instead of laying the basic ground work in our daily lives, we look back and see that our time was spent dwelling on that which we esteemed or desired, or doing other little things that weren’t very high on our priority list.   

    Ecclesiastes 6:9a is such a good reminder:  “Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire.”   Even if what is in front of us at the moment may seem daunting or unattainable, it is better to ask God’s help and guidance and then do something about the matter than to ignore it and wish it didn’t require any effort on our part.  Look at the ant:  It doesn’t have anyone to tell it what to do, no one to make sure that the job gets done; and yet it always has food in harvest (Prov. 6:6-8).  The ant does not look at a task, declare it too difficult, and just give up; neither does it just talk about how the work needs to be done, and express its deepest hope that someone will come along, see the need, and fill it. 

    Clearly, diligence is applicable for day-to-day living; making sure that the house is clean, the bills are paid, and that dinner is on the table.  However, it also applies to our Christian walk.  Are we talking about following Jesus, and just admiring His cause?  The hand of the lazy will bring poverty, but the hand of the diligent man will bring riches (Prov. 10:4).  Diligence means setting about vigorously and persistently to achieve an end.  It is working with painstaking effort to accomplish a task.  Do we talk about being Jesus’ hands and feet to a lost and dying world, or are we diligently working to live that out each day?  Have we set the task of reaching the lost “on the back burner” or are we actually doing something?  Has talking about the importance of living sold-out lives for Jesus Christ become enough for us?  Are we talking about how wonderful it would be to remain close to our King every day, or how we should pursue Him with all of our being? Let’s say that we have following Jesus as our number one priority:  Can we honestly say that there are not little things that distract us from that priority, or even –dare we say it? - Subtly replace that priority? 

   As Dani Johnson, a wonderful Christian, seminar-speaker, and millionaire says, “excuses are well-planned lies”.  What are some excuses we hide behind in our private lives?  There are no good reasons to not follow Jesus, no reasons to not get involved in the things that are close to His heart.  Even if we never physically participate in rescuing young girls sold into slave prostitution, or adopt twenty orphans, or go on an overseas mission trip, there is nothing stopping us from praying through these and other important issues.  There is nothing stopping us from living a life set apart for Him. There is nothing stopping us from seeking the Lord with all our heart, or reaching the lost around us; and what’s more, doing these things with diligence:  Putting God’s priorities first and vigorously setting out to see these things accomplished.

     Merely talking about following Christ is not the same as getting up and doing it.  Each man’s work will one day be shown for what it is (1 Cor. 3:11-15).  It is our job to be good stewards of all God has given us and to be faithful to invest in His kingdom, not to just merely talk about it, or dream about how wonderful it would be to get involved, leaving it up to someone else to do that which needs to be done. Sticking up our proverbial “support posters” to show that we encourage Jesus’ cause is not enough.  I want to challenge each of us to take a moment and look at our lives.  What are our priorities, truly?  What our His priorities worth to us:  Our painstaking effort, even our very lives?  Do we have the hands of the Diligent?