KEEP SHOWING UP – THE GRACE OF DILIGENCE
BREAD
10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. Hebrews 6:10-12 (NIV)
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4 (NIV)
11 As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. James 5:11 (NIV)
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8 (NIV)
4 The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. Proverbs 13:4 (NIV)
4 Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. 2 Thessalonians 1:4 (NIV)
5 The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. Proverbs 21:5 (NIV)
3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:3-5 (NIV)
15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. 1 Timothy 4:15-16 (NIV)
8 The king should know that we went to the district of Judah, to the temple of the great God. The people are building it with large stones and placing the timbers in the walls. The work is being carried on with diligence and is making rapid progress under their direction. Ezra 5:8 (NIV)
24 Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor. Proverbs 12:24 (NIV)
23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. Colossians 3:23-25 (NIV)
4 We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. 5 May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. 2 Thessalonians 3:4-5 (NIV)
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)
BUTTER
“Satan strikes either at the root of faith or at the root of diligence.” John Livingstone
“If there is one doctrine I have preached more than another, it is the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints even to the end.” Charles Spurgeon
“It costs much to obtain the power of the Spirit: It costs self-surrender and humiliation and a yielding up of our most precious things to God; it costs the perseverance of long waiting, and the faith of strong trust. But when we are really in that power, we shall find this difference, that whereas before, it was hard for us to do the easiest things, now it is easy for us to do the hard things.” A. J. Gordon
“What is needed is not mere present professions, but perseverance to the end in the power of faith.” Ignatius of Antioch
“The perseverance of the saints is only possible because of the perseverance of God.” J. Oswald Sanders
“Failure is not fatal nor success final. What matters for the believer in sweet Jesus is the perseverance to end in the power of the Spirit. That is indeed finishing well.” BHY
“Sometimes you have to fight through the night to get to the blessing. If you have the courage to stop running and decide that you are going to fight through the darkness and not give up until you reach the other side, you will discover God’s power and presence.” Kyle Idleman
“It’s never that we don’t have enough time — it’s always that we have different priorities. The enemy plots our destruction through distraction — distraction from God’s Word, God’s voice, God’s ways. Give up distractions — to keep your soul from destruction.” Ann Voskamp
“It’s really up to you as to how you will run the race of life. You decide whether “Christians have all we need, in every circumstance, at every moment, to live a godly life. God Himself dwells in us (Romans 8:9-11) and is at work in us (Philippians 2:13). In Christ, we are powerful. We are finally free to conquer pornography. Finally free to say, ‘No!’ to lying, stealing, and laziness (Titus 2:11-13). We are not left helpless to lie around and booze all day – we have the might to renounce every and any temptation through the Spirit that dwells within us (Romans 8:13). We have the very weapon of God in hand: His Word. The very presence of God in us: His Holy Spirit. And the very army of God to war with us: His church. To profess to have found him, and to bear no change, is to cast a shadow on the Name of Christ and the power of His Spirit. Christians should be distinct from the world in how we live. Yet we all have cause to sing, ‘Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love’. But even when the Christian stumbles, as we all do this side of glory, we are not content to make peace with belittling God. We do not settle at home in our sin. ‘We’re all human’ is not our excuse. We are not satisfied to wander from our Savior. When we fall, we will roll to our knees, plead for grace’s pardon and power, get up, and continue on our way.” Greg Morse
“Because Jesus wasn’t about doing big things. He was about doing the right thing. And often for Him, the right thing was noticing one simple soul…Could we try to be more like Jesus, this perfect man who was never too busy to notice someone who needed His touch? He could peek into the heart, respond with love, and then do it all over again the next time He encountered someone who simply needed to be seen…The simple act of noticing someone as they journey through life can lovingly mirror the behavior of God.” Karen Ehman
“The person who merely skims the Book of God will not profit from it; we must dig and mine until we obtain the treasure. The door of the Word only opens to the key of diligence. The Scriptures demand to be searched. They are the writings of God, bearing the divine stamp and imprimatur—who shall dare to treat them casually? To despise them is to despise the God who wrote them. It is full of surprises. Under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to the searching eye, it glows with splendor of revelation, like a vast temple paved with gold and roofed with rubies, emeralds, and all manner of gems. There is no merchandise like the merchandise of scriptural truth. Finally, the Scriptures reveal Jesus: ‘They that bear witness about me.’ No more powerful motive can be urged upon Bible readers than this: He who finds Jesus finds life, heaven, and all things. Happy are they who, in searching the Bible, discover their Savior. C. H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg
“That is life. It’s composed of a million choices. And most of those choices seem insignificant, unimportant, unimpressive, and uninteresting. But character is developed when we continue to make the next, right choice. And character creates influence. And influence creates legacy. So if you want to leave an amazing legacy, just keep doing the next right thing. Four generations from now, people probably won’t remember your name. But someone you love will be different because of you.” Laura Black
HEART SAVOR
• Those who follow Christ are to do the next right thing in love for their Master. Finishing well in His strength is to be our mantra – for our good, for His glory.
• Sadly, there is nothing more common than do-less saints.
• May those who come behind us find us faithful.
Beth Yoe's Sharing Bread 