Diligence

I was driving down interstate-20 this past week when I got to pondering the word; “diligence.” It can be defined as “perseveringly attentive; assiduous; industrious.” I was listening to a message about the life of Martin Luther. The two things that stuck out to me from that message are his diligence to preach an average of every other day and to write a publishable document every other day even though he was using a quill pen which had to be dipped in ink and scratched onto paper.

Earlier this year while seeking the Lord for personal goals I would set for 2010 three things I sensed the Lord telling me was to be diligent in my in prayer, preaching, and writing ministry. I feel the pressure to be more diligent to keep writing as some of you check this site often to see if we have posted anything new. I feel a burden to write while I have time and life left to write. Once I am gone all I will have left in ministry to a large extent will be my writings. I have long prayed the things I write would be used of the Lord and outlive me standing the test of time.

Instead of being diligent about my writing I often procrastinate and make excuses for the many demands on my time. I have no excuses. I am typing this on a lap top computer in the solitude and silence of my office. Oops I spoke too soon. The phone just rang for me. Back to the task at hand. I have Bible study software on this computer to help me as I study for messages at the click of a button without the endless turning of pages in books (though I still love and use my books.) I have a truck to drive me where as Luther had to walk, ride a horse, or be drawn in a carriage. I have thousands of books in my library and through the internet access to millions of tidbits of information Luther did not have. Despite being the leader of the reformation movement, serving as a preacher, seminary professor, husband, and father, Luther was diligent to write. In 1520 he wrote 133 works. In 1522 he penned an additional 130 works. In 1523 and 1524 he wrote 183 publishable works all with quill pen and bottle of ink. Luther did not know the convenience of computers, spell check, email, texting, and Bible study software. What excuse do I have? If he could be inspired by God, empowered by God, and available to God to be diligent then by the Lord’s power so can I. He would have found it odd to see people seated mindlessly before a television when books, especially the Bible, are left unread and studied, and when letters and documents need to be written, or sermons needed to be prepared..

God is calling me to diligence in writing. I must make the time to write more for Him. Whether it be a blog, working on another book, or writing an article for the Paradise Southern Wise Times newspaper I must be diligent. There are no excuses. I am busy but Luther carried much more responsibility than I. I have a wife and children who need and deserve my attention but so did Luther, in fact, he had six children (one of which died when she was eight months old) and all he did during those years was to preach between and one hundred twenty and two hundred times a year. I have no excuses for not being diligent in my writings. So instead of taking this as my day off I have decided to use Fridays as a writing day. I am devoting my morning to writing.

There are several great synonyms for the word diligent. Hard-working. Industrious. Assiduous. Attentive. Painstaking. How I long for these words to describe my passion and zeal for writing and preaching what the Lord inspires me to share with others. So I sit and hammer away at these keys in the hopes that I will be diligent to my calling and perhaps minister to others along the way.

We are an excuse-ridden society. We make excuses for not exercising, not finishing the books we started reading, or completing the project around the house we started. What we really need is more diligence. Many years ago I set a goal for the number of books I wanted to write in my lifetime. As the years pile up most of those books have remained unwritten and just a compilation of jumbled ideas in my mind. Those ideas beg to be thought through, expressed, and corralled onto the printed page. Which means I must labor assiduously to give thought to those ideas and painstakingly take the time to write. There are no excuses for my lack of diligence.

So how does a husband, father, pastor, and president (of No Compromise Ministries) find time to be an author? I trust God. I just pulled out my journal entry from December 28, 2009. In that entry I wrote what I sensed the Lord saying to me, “Give yourself to prayer, writing, and preaching.” That seems to be the same message I received driving down the road this past week. God wants more diligence from me in writing, studying to preach and as always in prayer. One simple way to do that is to give myself on Fridays to primarily the writing ministry, to make studying for messages the highest priority and to bathe both in prayer. Other things I can do are to limit television watching in light of reading good books and spending more time studying and writing.

One other thought I have received from reading a biography on the life of A.W. Tozer is that he constantly thought. In fact he said a person ought to think ten times as much as a person reads. He was known to carry a little pad with him so as to constantly jot down ideas about things to write or to preach. I just put such a notebook in the pocket of my shirt.

I don’t know what the Lord has called you to be diligent about. For me it is writing, prayer, and preaching not necessarily in that order. What is God calling you to be diligent in? Remember we are to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. [Col 3:17]