September 4
Diligence is extolled in the scriptures. Whether in business practices or in personal habits, that one thing is credited with success. Any entrepreneur can tell you that without it, a business will fail. Also, any individual who has attained the goals of character and virtue that he desired for himself can attest to the necessity of diligence toward his desired ends.
Some of the early arrivals to colonial America, for example, were people of privilege in England. They did not anticipate that work would be among the things they would be required to do in the untamed land to which they had arrived. They soon discovered that unless they worked, there would be nothing to sustain them!
When they assumed the responsibility for tilling the soil and planting the seeds and reaping the crops, success followed their diligence. They read verses such as, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat,” II Thessalonians 3:10, and realized that God honors and rewards a man’s labors but He disdains indolence.
This concept is set forth in the Old Testament as well. In Proverbs 10:4, Solomon, the world’s wisest man, says, “Diligent hands bring wealth,” and he states again in Proverbs 13:4, “The desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.” Knowing the Lord rewards our labor, should we shirk our opportunities to perform it well?
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