from the archive: Diligence

NAU Proverbs 13:4 "The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, But the soul of the diligent is made fat."

Many Christians walk around with emaciated souls due to their lax approach toward the disciplines of godliness. We are quick to cry "salvation is by faith, not of works," when really what we mean is "salvation is by laziness," supposing that since our deeds do not contribute to our justification, that this then supplies license to do nothing. This is to distort the gospel of grace. For when a soul is awakened by God's mercy, it is not to anything but to a call to a life of zealous pursuit of Jesus Christ and the things that pertain to Him. Further, in order to sustain us in this pursuit, God has richly prepared a bounty of spiritual food for us in such forms as the Scriptures and prayer, the fellowship of other believers, and suffering. When we fail through laziness to partake of these, it is as though we push ourselves back from the table of the Lord's grace, rendering our soul famished, and thus tired and weak. When, however, we make it a priority to fill our spirits with heavenly food, then can we be strengthened for the tasks the Father has so wonderfully prepared for us to His glory. The tasks themselves often sweetly become in turn nourishment for further work.
Was this not our Master's diet? Did not Jesus, in response to His disciples' urging Him to eat, say "I have food to eat that you do not know about" and "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work?" Sadly, we can be so stuffed full of the world's delights, that we thereafter have no such appetite for the work of God, having been sickened by our own gluttony, to our soul's starvation.