Diligence Revisited

Have you ever had a time in your life when the same topic or idea keeps coming up over and over again and you finally clue in that God is trying to get your attention?

I can point back to numerous times in my life when that has been my experience.  It usually means that God wants my obedience in a certain area that is lacking.  I can specifically remember the way the idea of adoption kept falling in my lap out of nowhere, or so it seemed, until I finally got the message.  Keith was a part of that one, too, of course.  God worked on both of our hearts for some time before we finally submitted to His will for us.  Little did we know the countless lessons and blessings that would be ours through the awesome adventure that awaited us.

There have been other times as well.  I can be a little slow when it comes to seeing the obvious.

Yesterday I posted some verses that God had impressed upon my heart about the need for me to be diligent in teaching my kids and others about the goodness of God.  It was the idea of diligence that struck me.

Today, I was studying the beginning of Psalm 119 and this verse jumped out like it was in bold print.

"You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently."  ~ Psalm 119:4 

So, not only does God tell us to diligently teach His precepts to those following behind us, but He has commanded us to diligently keep those very precepts ourselves.

What exactly does it mean to be diligent?

"Diligence:  constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken; persistent exertion of body or mind."      ~ Dictionary.com 

Constant...really?  Earnest...really?  All the time and with real effort.  That's what it means.  Not a haphazard attempt to throw it in here and there as you go through your day with your kids, or at work, or wherever.  Not a life of obedience when it's convenient for us or when it's easy.  It is a purposed, concentrated, "persistent exertion of body or mind."  I would go so far as to say body and mind since we fight daily battles in both arenas.

The psalmist was obviously struck with this idea of diligence, too, as he followed that statement with this one.

"Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!"  ~Psalm 119:5

As I purpose to teach my kids each day, I must remember the importance, the necessity, of keeping God's statutes faithfully and living them out in front of others.  Otherwise, my words mean nothing.  My prayer is that those following after me will see someone that preaches what they practice.  That I may, in all honesty, tell them to follow me as I follow Christ.

As I've thought on this today, I've really been astounded at the depth of this one word that God has impressed upon my heart.  If one word of His can have so much impact, it is easy to see how we will be able to study and dwell on the Bible for all eternity without exhausting it's depths.