Diligence
Hebrews 12:1-2 New King James Version
The Race of Faith
12 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the [a]author and [b]finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
We are in a season of celebrating medals, gold silver and bronze from Tokyo. All coming through running. For us to run, we need to lay aside every weight or sin that ensnares us. Every time we receive medals like those of Joshua Cheptegei and team, we see many people inspired to run but after about 3months the numbers of runners reduce. The difference in these athletes is the diligence or discipline.
2 Peter 1:2-5 New King James Version
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
The apex of our growth as Christians is love, and before love is perseverance. Therefore, faith is the very bottom of it, However, for us to move from faith through the different stages; (moral excellence, knowledge and insight, self-control to perseverance, we must apply the lowest common multiple which is diligence.
There is no way we can persevere if we are not diligent thus, we cannot grow as Christians if we do not apply diligence.
We cannot grow as crowd Christians, this only gives us a “feel good” factor, we learn some things yes but the place of true learning is the secret place where we seek God, we listen to God, the place of travail where we apply diligence. This place makes us men and women of faith. Here is where we begin our Christian journey of faith. As we grow in our faith, we develop moral excellence, we get knowledge and understanding to be able to apply to the situations around us, then we develop perseverance and love.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 English Standard Version
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control,[a] lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
1 Timothy 4:6-7 New Living Translation
6 If you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Christ Jesus, one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teaching you have followed. 7 Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly.
Paul encourages Timothy to train himself to be godly, this is discipline and diligence. For people to win medals they have to undergo rigorous exercises and training diligently and consistently. If you are training yourself in prayer you must be diligent, this means you must be consistently doing it. We need to be conscious of these things because either way, life will train us, life will discipline you or teach you to be diligent. We can either be trained by life and the world which is a harsh teacher because we make gross mistakes that we look back in regret or self-discipline. The only way to avoid this school of life is to school yourself through the school of diligence.
As children, when we come to Christ, we learn godly discipline and this discipline leads us to godliness. As we self-discipline ourselves, we are taking a proactive measure, depending on the Holy Spirit to limit our impulses and nature of our life to desire everything, and bringing it to the subjection of the Holy Spirit and to the word of God. This imposes self-discipline and the world will not discipline us because the law becomes our nature that has been covered by the grace of God.
Starting a life of discipline is usually difficult because you are going against the flesh, the very desires of your body. But as you go along you realize that it is bringing benefit because you begin to walk in a certain level of freedom that others do not have.
Luke 16:10 New Living Translation
10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.
As you begin to discipline yourself in the little things, then He will entrust you with the bigger things.
Discipline is an ongoing process and it is progressive, it is a lifestyle that we live. For us to develop perseverance we must develop a lifestyle. If it is prayer we consistently pray and grow in that area of our lives.
So, it takes training for us to discipline ourselves and also it takes discipline to grow in our Christian walk. Growth begins with a discipline of consistent steps and a steady pace that is sustained through the process over a time. If you are still at the level of one verse a day, read it consistently, you cannot begin at a very high level because it is very easy to collapse. There is no room for erratic Christian because they remain spiritual babies.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 English Standard Version
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
You can run a race but it is not meaningful unless you obtain the prize. Obtaining the prize means you run to the very end, if you end somewhere you go back to the beginning.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 English Standard Version
25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control,[a] lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
If the athletes exercise so much to get this perishable piece of gold, how much more us who are going to obtain the imperishable, it means that we must do so much more and keep at it and make sure to complete the race.
There are so many traps and hindrances that the world offers but we must keep our eyes on Jesus and persevere to the very end.
If you discipline yourself you will grow spiritually and grow into godliness but if that is not so, every wind of this world’s pleasures will sweep you away because godliness is far from you.
Proverbs 13:4 New Living Translation
4 Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper.
A self-disciplined life brings us closer to God, it puts us in a better position to hear Him, It causes us to make better choices and to wait for what God has for us. On the contrary if we are lazy and not diligently disciplined, we cannot partake the promises of God. If we stay in the presence of God in our quiet time, the more we learn to listen to the voice of God and thus we get to know His timing. If you are not spiritually sensitive, most often than not you will hear from the world or the devil first before you hear Gods voice. But until we learn the diligence of dwelling in His presence waiting and listening from Him and knowing what the times are then we will understand His timing in our lives.
We have a promise for the present life and the life to come if we learn to be diligent and persevere in Him.
