Yesterday we looked at what diligence means and you came up with some good definitions and passages to help us understand how important it is in our daily walk as Christians. Today as you think about diligence, I want you to come up with an example of someone who was NOT diligent about something so we can learn about the things that hinder diligence. Being able to recognize the temptations can help us stand against them. Choose your character and analyze what happened.
I have chosen Moses for my example. After he finally agreed to let God use him to deliver the Israelites and lead them to the promised land, Moses was usually very diligent. He carefully listened to God and obeyed Him exactly. But there was this one instance...
10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.
12 Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.
What I notice about this incident is that although Moses went to God for the answer, understood the answer, and set out to obey, something got in the way. Maybe he had allowed the constant complaining to get to him. Maybe someone said something to him on the way to the rock that made him angry. Maybe he forgot to eat breakfast. He probably wasn't hormonal, but maybe he was just tired. After all, he was nearly 120. And on top of that, earlier in the chapter his older sister Miriam had just died. So what got in his way? We are not told for sure but when I look at all the possibilities I realize that even though they probably seemed pretty big to him, they were not justification for not being diligent. I guess most of all he lost his focus. Instead of looking at God, he started looking at himself..."must we..." Taking my eyes off God will cause me to stop being diligent.
Now let's hear what you have discovered from your examples!
3 comments:
Genesis 12:10-20, 20:1-17 - Let's think about Abraham! Here is God's chosen "father of nations" and the ancestor of our Savior, a man who believed God and left his home and all he knew to be a nomad based on God's promises to him, and he lies about his wife being his sister (which was a half-truth, I know), not once but twice...the second time when she was around 90 years old (she must have been some beauty). He is a rich man, and obviously powerful in his time, and he's still afraid of being killed so someone can marry his wife. I have to kind of shake my head of that "slip" in his trust in God, his lack of diligence in maintaining his faith. Really, here's a man who trusts God enough later on to be willing to sacrifice his long-awaited promised son, but on these two occasions he devises his own plan to save his skin...wow.
It's this "type" of story that God gives us (He could only tell the good things about His faithful people, but He gives us ALL of it, warts and all for a reason), that really builds me up. It reminds me that EVERYONE SINS, everyone makes stupid mistakes (some pretty heinous), but His faithful and diligent children get back up and keep going....diligence - just don't quit on God. Thank you, Abraham, for your diligence!
How about the Rich Young Ruler? Mathew 19:16-26- Here is a man who was blessed with many earthly possessions and yet when he asked the Lord “which” of the commandments he needed to keep in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, his attitude was already displaying a lack of diligence. This story always makes me sad knowing that the answer was literally staring him right in the face, and there was SO MUCH GOOD he could have done with what he had been blessed with, yet the love he had for his possessions was not something he was willing to give up.
Unless he happened to “stumble” upon his wealth, he had to have known something about hard work and diligence but he became too proud of what he had accomplished as oppose to giving God the glory. I know there are parts of my life where I am very diligent, but this story reminds me that if my focus is not where it should be, I just might be working hard for the wrong reasons. Sometimes the answer may be right in front of us, but unless our hearts are open to what God is showing us to do, then are actions of diligence just might be in vain and we will be left sad and empty just like the young ruler.
I thought of David. He was usually so zealous for God, but right before he started down the path toward his most horrible sin with Bathsheba, we read that David stayed home in Jerusalem instead of leading his men in battle, slept through the day, woke in the evening and then saw Bathsheba bathing on the roof. It seems like if he had been diligent in his leadership role, he never would have been in that position to be tempted to sin (2 Samuel 11).
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