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.