by Mrs. Anastasia Rebello
It’s beautiful to share the word in this wonderful Holiday season when the mood for most of us is to Relax. But to live a life of excellence for God is what is our calling today. To live Christian pleasing to God is a Challenge. Our Topic today is Diligence.
The Dictionary defines Diligence : As being hard working, industrious, earnest and persistent application to an undertaking or attentive care; heedfulness.
In 1 Timothy 4:,12,15-16 - Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Sometimes it is easy to talk on Diligence but difficult to be Diligent. Most of us associate Diligence with either academics or the work in the office. Rarely do we associate Diligence with all areas of our life.
The book of Wisdom talks of seven pillars of wisdom & I think one of them is Diligence.
Proverbs 9:1. - Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars.
We are not told what the seven pillars are. I believe they are themes of truth that will lead to life.
One of the “pillars” upon which I believe wisdom is built on is Diligence.
Sometimes we think that we need to be Diligent only if we are being watched or else it is OK. In Mumbai the famous Slogan is Chalta Hai… It is sometimes so famous that you hear it on the lips of both young & old. With an attitude like that it is virtually impossible for us to be Diligent. But God is calling you & me to be diligent in this world but not of it. We have to see how far we can get from this world & how close we can get to God. Pleasing our Lord Jesus Christ should be our number one priority. Life is a series of choices. God gave each of us the ability to make our own decisions. If you are going to live a life of excellence for God, then you concentrate on making wise & Godly choices that bring honour to the name of Jesus not shame & disappointment. The only way to make Godly choices is to live a life of Diligence in all areas of our life. The areas that I believe God is calling us to Diligent is :
Seeking His presence daily
Proverbs 26:16 – 16 The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer discreetly. Laziness has it’s own false wisdom that does not seek God.
Don’t be caught in it. You are never done seeking the Lord.
Recently we attended a Holiness retreat and the preacher was sharing on how he wakes early in the morning 4.00 am to pray. He said she (wisdom) wakes me early in the morning to pray or else by 5.00 she will go to another persons door. (Wisdom 6 v14). He also said God who is full of wisdom how can He work with a foolish person like me. Many a times for us prayer is only a Wednesday affair or a Sunday affair. But only those who seek the Lord daily will give new thoughts & inspirations. To grow in Holiness one has to sit daily before our Lord so that His transforming power is at work within us.
Leadership
Most of us here may say we are not leaders. But in some aspect or the other we are all called to lead others. As Romans 12: 6-8 - We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
We are also called to serve others. Proverbs 12:24 - Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labour.- In biblical times not being able to pay a debt really did end in slave labour, you worked for nothing until the debt was paid.
Diligence is a requirement for effective leadership. In our own prayer group I have seen how the ministry members work so Diligently. Every outreach that we are invited we are there almost 2 hours before the service. I have never seen them take God’s work for granted.
Even in our homes. If we want our children to do something, you need to lead them by your example & they will follow. Don’t preach to them. My own father who was an engineer by profession just like his drawings which were so precise so also has been his life with the Lord. At 69 he still wakes daily at 3.00 in the morning to pray, then washes his car, washes his clothes & finally goes for the 6.00 am mass. I have seen him do this for the last 35 years or more. I admire him for it because I yet struggle in that area. If sometimes I have had late night I struggle to be up & go for the first mass.
Working
Proverbs 21: 25. The sluggard’s craving will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work. Proverbs 10: 4 - Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. Proverbs 13: 4 - The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. In the Matthew 25:14 –28 gives a teaching on how each one of us is accountable for our talents. As a general rule most of us succeed with harder work or don’t by laziness.
I know some of you are facing major decisions today. And maybe you are trying to decide should I compromise & take the easy way out? Should I do the right thing & go the way that I know beyond a shadow of doubt would be pleasing to God? Let me encourage you, Always take the high road, And you will never be disappointed. It may not be the easiest path, but God will reward you for doing what is right. Nothing takes the place of living a life of integrity.
Personal affairs
Proverbs 19: 24 - The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not even bring it back to his mouth! Proverbs 12: 27 - The lazy man does not roast his game, but the diligent man prizes his possessions. How many of us are not enjoying life as we should be simply because we have not been diligent in our personal affairs?
1. Sloppy household - financial management: Sometimes with Plastic card that we use we just find it difficult to control our spending. Our wants have become our needs.
2. Poor Car maintenance
3. Letting things go around the house and later paying more because we were lazy.
4. Personal care: Even personal health issues, exercise, meal preparation.
I once heard a priest say that we eat all the junk food available & then spend expensive amounts on Hi Tech Gyms. Sometimes simple walking gives excellent results.
Letter writing
And I would like to add this one because procrastination is embedded deeply in my bones as far as letter writing went. But I have realized sometimes writing to people & acknowledging their mail makes simple relationships special. I have really had to work in this area. I would like to conclude with story I read about a shoemaker that I read.
A young boy worked for a while for a Scottish shoemaker, or "cobbler," as he preferred to be called, an Orkney man, named Dan Mackay. He was a forthright Christian and his little shop was a real testimony for Christ in the neighborhood. The walls were literally covered with Bible texts and pictures, generally taken from old-fashioned Scripture Sheet Almanacs, so that look where one would, he found the Word of God staring him in the face. There were John 3:16 and John 5:24, Romans 10:9, and many more. On the little counter in front of the bench on which the owner of the shop sat, was a Bible, generally open, and a pile of gospel tracts. No package went out of that shop without a printed message wrapped inside. And whenever opportunity offered, the customers were spoken to kindly and tactfully about the importance of being born again and the blessedness of knowing that the soul is saved through faith in Christ. Many came back to ask for more literature or to inquire more particularly as to how they might find peace with God, with the blessed results that men and women were saved, frequently right in the shoe shop. It was this boy’s chief responsibility to pound leather for shoe soles. A piece of cowhide would be cut to suite, and then soaked in water. He had a flat piece of iron over his knees and, with a flat-headed hammer; He pounded these soles until they were hard and dry. It seemed an endless operation to him, and he wearied of it many times. What made his task worse was the fact that, a block away, there was another shop that he passed going and coming to or from his home, and in it sat a jolly, godless cobbler who gathered the boys of the neighborhood about him and regaled them with lewd tales that made him dreaded by respectable parents as a menace to the community. Yet, somehow, he seemed to thrive and that perhaps to a greater extent than his employer, Mackay. As he looked in his window, he often noticed that he never pounded the soles at all, but took them from the water, nailed them on, damp as they were, and with the water splashing from them as he drove each nail in. One day he ventured inside, something he had been warned never to do. Timidly, he said, "I notice you put the soles on while still wet. Are they just as good as if they were pounded?" He gave him a wicked leer as he answered, "They come back all the quicker this way, my boy!""Feeling he had learned something, he related the instance to his boss and suggested that he was perhaps wasting time in drying out the leather so carefully. Mr. Mackay stopped his work and opened his Bible to the passage that reads, "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.""Harry," he said, "I do not cobble shoes just for the four bits and six bits (50c or 75c) that I get from my customers. I am doing this for the glory of God. I expect to see every shoe I have ever repaired in a big pile at the judgment seat of Christ, and I do not want the Lord to say to me in that day, ’Dan, this was a poor job. You did not do your best here.’ I want Him to be able to say, ’Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Then he went on to explain that just as some men are called to preach, so he was called to fix shoes, and that only as he did this well would his testimony count for God. It was a lesson he was never able to forget. Often when he would be tempted to carelessness, and to slipshod effort, he would think of dear, devoted Dan Mackay, and it has stirred him up to seek to do all as for Him who died to redeem me.
Today God is calling you to be Diligent in at least one area of your life. And I’m here today to challenge you and stir you and fire you up a little bit to strive for excellence in our walk with the Lord. Quit making excuses and blaming people and situations for your negligence. Nobody is Twisting your arm to live a Diligent life. The choice is ours to live better or…/ I leave with that Question . Are you willing ? Amen