With All Diligence

Since I wrote the preceding piece on March 28, I have been considering further the phrase, "with all diligence." What are we that focused on, that diligent toward that we can say we do it "with all diligence"?

I am diligent when it comes to doing laundry and washing dishes and such pertaining to home making. And reading produces writing.

Employees are expected to do their jobs with diligence, focus, single-mindedness.

Sports, ah yes, sports--fans and teams alike can be avidly diligent. Let your team down and expect to be benched, demoted, if not cut altogether.

We can do what we do "heartily, as unto the Lord." But in the matter of keeping the heart--the true, innermost you--how diligent are you? Am I?

Are we as diligent in this as in our work, whatever that is, or in our hobbies, whatever they are?

I have begun to read Keeping the Heart: How to Maintain Your Love for God by the Puritan John Flavel, and this has prodded my thoughts which have produced these pieces.

May my heart be wholly, diligently kept for and by the Lord.

Above All Else

We are all seeking to prioritize according to God's will, so we read this book and that with diligence still when here it is so clearly stated: "Above all else, keep your heart with all diligence for from it flow the issues of life."

Tucked away in Proverbs, chapter 4:

"Above all else"--

Three short words--

"Above all else"--

Prioritize accordingly--

"Above all else" keep--

Guard, protect intentionally, conscientiously--

Your heart--

The inner you--

With all diligence--

All means all--

For--

Because--

From it flow--

Proceed--

The issues--

Choices and decisions--

Of life--not just a day or a week or a month--life.

Wait

Like hope and love, wait is a four-letter word. And it is equally hard to learn.

When we are young, we find it heard to wait for a special event such as a birthday or Christmas. As we grow older, we are challenged to wait for success in school--that we need to build on successive grades even as we are anxious to graduate and be out, working. Working, we have to wait for promotion, and eventually, to retirement. But we don't like to wait. We want to have what we want when we want it. Impatience marks us.

Then comes the really difficult waiting: someone we love and want to marry but we have to wait to be engaged, then through engagement to wedding day, then after that to the actual marriage. And we wait for children to come, and if they don't, we wait to find out why.

As we age, we wait for the results of medical tests. As others age, we wait for the call informing us of the state of their health. And then there is the most dreadful wait of all: for death.

We are not patient. We want what we want when we want it, except declining health and eventual death--those we would just as soon put off as long as possible.

I remember the month we expected my husband's grandmother to die about 13 years ago; it was the longest month as we waited for "the phone call," but it wasn't God's will for her to die then. I remember other months of anxiety, too.

I have learned over the years to take my strength from the Word of the Lord, and especially from the Psalms..

Psalm 25:5: "Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day."

Psalm 33:20: "Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and shield."

Psalm 37:7, 9: "Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of  the man who carries out evil schemes....For evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land."

Psalm 37:34: "Wait for the LORD and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it."

Psalm 39:7:  "And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You."

Psalm 40:1: "I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me and heard my cry."

Psalm 62:1, 5: "My soul waits in silence for God only; from Him is my salvation....My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him."

Psalm 119:74: May those who fear You see me and be glad; because I wait for Your word."

Psalm 119:114: "You are my hiding place and my shield; I wait for Your word."

Psalm 130:5: "I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope."

But I have learned to take this as my strength whenever I have to wait:

     "I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of
     the LORD is the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your
     heart take courage; yes, wait for the LORD" (Psalm 27:13-14); and this from
     Isaiah 40: "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the
     LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired;
     His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who
     lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and
     vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait on the LORD will gain
     new strength, they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not
     get tired, they will walk and not become weary" (verses 28-31).

Hope

For some, hope is just a four-letter word because every time they have gotten their hope up, it has been smashed to smithereens, not merely deferred or delayed.

Jobs, room-mates, employment, family--all can either fulfill or fracture hope. And even these satisfactions can prove transitory. A job isn't what it seemed to be when first taken. Employers' promises aren't kept as understood. Promising employees fail. Room-mates aren't the same as when you were friends. Family members move and you lose touch.

Lasting hope is found in God's character as revealed in His word.

Let's begin with Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 5. Here Paul starts to unpack the results of justification:

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (vv. 1-5).

Later in this letter, Paul would again bring the subjects of hope and perseverance together: "For in hope we have been saved, and hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it" (8:24-25).

Later still in Romans, he lists these commands: "Be devoted to brotherly love, giving preference to one another in honor; not lagging in diligence; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality" (12:10-13).

And again in chapter 15: "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope....Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (vv. 4, 13).

Peter also wrote regarding hope: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:3-5).

In a sense, this brings us back to Romans 8 where Paul wrote of hope that is not seen. Because God has given us this hope, He also enables us by His indwelling Spirit to persevere until we receive that salvation of which Peter wrote.

For reference to some that was written in earlier times, per Romans 15, read these passages from the Psalms:

Psalms 9:18; 31:24; 33:18-22; 38:15; 39:7; 62:5; 71:5, 14; 119:49, 116; and 130:5.

Compassion

The subject of compassion is on my mind because of all the prayer needs I have seen, especially where relationships are concerned. In his first letter, Peter wrote, "Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). This kind of love is compassionate.

In the famous 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, we read: "Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

This kind of love can only come from God, whom we love because He first loved us (1 John 4:10-11, 19.)

This kind of compassion is noted many times in Scripture.

"Remember, O LORD, Your compassion and Your lovingkindnesses, for they have been from of old" (Psalm 25:6).

"You, O LORD, will not withhold Your compassion from me; Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me" (Psalm 40:11).

"Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness, according to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions" (Psalm 51:1).

"The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness" (Psalm 103:8).

"He has made His wonders to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and compassionate" (Psalm 111:4).

"Light arises in the darkness for the upright; He is gracious and compassionate and righteous" (Psalm 112:4).

"Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; how blessed are those who long for Him" (Isaiah 30:18).

"Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:7).

Given God's compassion, how ought we treat other believers?

Paul wrote to the Colossians: "So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with each other and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you" (Colossians 3:12-13).

Who Is Sufficient?

Who is sufficient for the days and the nights of life,
With its ups, downs, backs, aheads, runnings in place?
Who gives the grace for the infant, the toddler,
The growing and the grown, the aging and the dying?
Who gives perspective when wisdom and strength
Are required yet lack?
Who gives all the Christian needs for life and godliness?

Peter makes the answer clear in his second letter:

"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.... So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of the human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God" (2 Peter 1:2-4, 19-21).

Or hear Paul in his letter to the Romans:

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.... For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.... What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, 'FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED SHEEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED,' But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:18, 24-27, 31-37).