Diligence through desire:
What do you want and how much do you want it?
Pro 18:1 Through desire a man, having separated
himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with
all wisdom.
Are you willing to let both action and a change of action
take place in your life? There are some
things that we need to add and there are some things that we need to lay aside
or allow to change if we are to be successful in serving God.
God saves us and cleanses our soul, mind, heart: emotions,
affections, desires. He sanctifies us
and puts His Holy Spirit within us so that we can live a constant holy
life. He has given us everything that we
need for godliness. Diligence and
discipline are two of the things that are our responsibility. He will not force us to do anything.
May 10th
Take
the initiative
Add to your faith virtue . . . .
(“Furnish your faith with resolution.”)
(MOFFATT) 2 Peter 1:5.
“Add” means there is something we
have to do. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and
that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save ourselves nor sanctify
ourselves, God does that; but God will not give us good habits, He will not
give us character, He will not make us walk aright. We have to do all that
ourselves, we have to work out the salvation God has worked in. “Add” means to
get into the habit of doing things, and in the initial stages it is difficult.
To take the initiative is to make a beginning, to instruct yourself in the way
you have to go.
Beware of the tendency of asking the
way when you know it perfectly well. Take the initiative, stop hesitating, and
take the first step. Be resolute when God speaks, act in faith immediately on
what He says, and never revise your decisions. If you hesitate when God tells
you to do a thing, you endanger your standing in grace. Take the initiative,
take it yourself, take the step with your will now, make it impossible to go
back. Burn your bridges behind you—‘I will write that letter’; ‘I will
pay that debt.’ Make the thing inevitable.
We have to get into the habit of
hearkening to God about everything, to form the habit of finding out what God
says. If, when a crisis comes, we instinctively turn to God, we know that the
habit has been formed. We have to take the initiative where we are, not
where we are not.
Lovest thou me more than these? Brother Gary’s message 4/15/2012 was so good
to me and has been ever since. I need to
have passion, a passion for souls, a passion for studying the Word, a passion
for serving God.
Having a passion will cause us to set some things aside so
that we have the time and strength we need to follow and be obedient. It will cause us to endure a little hardship
and look to the end and the purpose being accomplished rather than the
difficulty because we are passionate about the purpose we are working
toward. We will care more about lifting
Him up than our own purpose or desire.
Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation
hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present
world;
Tit 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem
us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of
good works.
If we are passionate, we will be willing to be uncomfortable,
displaced, or feel out of joint if we know that we are doing what He wants us
to do. He is in control and will be able
to use our feeble attempt if we will obey.
Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about
with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin
which doth so easily beset us, and let
us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of
our faith; who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God.
Heb 12:3 For consider him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your
minds.
Heb 12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving
against sin.
Jesus for the joy that was set before Him endured the
cross. He endured hardship many times
because there was something that meant more to Him than this life. He did not complain about the hardship. He exhibited a disciplined, cheerful endurance. He endured the cross: He had fortitude,
persevered, remained, and stayed under the cross. He despised the shame: despise, disesteem,
consider with disregard.
Because of His willing sacrifice, we have salvation. We can have a new life. We can live with a purpose as He did. He is the author and finisher of our
faith. Consider Him lest you be weary,
to tire, and faint, to relax, in your minds.
Pro 18:1 Through desire a man, having separated
himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with
all wisdom.
Through desire… longing, delight, satisfaction…
Because of Longing for more of God, longing for a closer
relationship with Him, delight in His Word, in His righteousness, in His
promises, in His commandments, in His loving kindness, and mercy. Because We’re Satisfied with His salvation,
His forgiveness, and with the change He has made in our life; satisfied with
His love; Satisfied with the strength and grace He daily gives, Satisfied with
the fruits of His Spirit that He has placed in our life.
Because of this longing, delight, and satisfaction we care
enough about worshipping Him, studying His Word, and obeying and living in the
Spirit to separate our self.
Separated himself… to
break through, put out of joint, divide, separate self, make a division,
stretch, part, sunder – Sunder: 1. To part; to separate; to divide; to disunite
in almost any manner, either by rending, cutting, or breaking; as, to sunder a
rope or cord; to sunder a limb or joint; to sunder friends, or the ties of
friendship.
We must care enough about God to be willing to separate
ourselves.
There will be some barriers in our own mind, heart,
personality that we will have to break through.
There will be barriers that others have put up that we cannot let hinder
us from being passionate about serving God.
Some may think that we are strange; we cannot let that hinder us.
There will be habits that give us comfort that will need to
be changed if we are to get anywhere with serving God. We may feel stretched or uncomfortable at
times. Jesus hung on the cross as a part
of His passion. He did this because He
loved; He was passionate about His purpose.
“For the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the Father…”
There will be times when we will have to separate ourselves
from our friends or family, or they may divide from us because of stands that
we feel that we have to make.
When father or mother forsake… (Ps 27:10)
There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. (Pr
18:24)
There will be things that would slow us or be a stumbling
block to us if we hang onto them. We
will have to separate ourselves from these things.
1Pe 2:1 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all
guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of
the word, that ye may grow thereby:
Pro 6:16 These six things
doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an
abomination unto him:
Pro 6:17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that
shed innocent blood,
Pro 6:18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations,
feet that be swift in running to mischief,
Pro 6:19 A false witness that
speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Php 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always
obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to
will and to do of his good pleasure.
Php 2:14 Do all things without murmurings and
disputings:
Php 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the
sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,
among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
Php 2:16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may
rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in
vain.
Having separated our self we can be in a position to receive
from God.
Mat 7:7 Ask, and it shall be
given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Mat 7:8 For every one that
asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it
shall be opened.
Mat 7:9 Or what man is there
of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
Mat 7:10 Or if he ask a fish,
will he give him a serpent?
Mat 7:11 If ye then, being
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your
Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
Joh 16:24 Hitherto have ye
asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
Seeketh … to search
out by any method, specifically by worship and prayer, to strive after. To beseech, beg, ask, inquire, request, seek.
Intermeddleth… to have to do, to touch, to handle: Action, activity, putting into action,
seeking with obedience.
Wisdom… substantiate – 1. To
establish by proof or competent evidence; to verify; to make good.
Ability, help, undertaking, understanding, purpose,
enterprise, substance, sound wisdom, working.
2Pe 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto
us all things that pertain unto life and
godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and
virtue:
2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and
precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2Pe 1:5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to
your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
2Pe 1:6 And to knowledge temperance; and to
temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
2Pe 1:7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to
brotherly kindness charity.
2Pe 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they
make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
2Pe 1:9 But he that lacketh these things is blind,
and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old
sins.
2Pe 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give
diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye
shall never fall:
Diligence 1) haste,
with haste 2) earnestness, diligence
2a) earnestness in accomplishing, promoting, or
striving after anything
2b) to give all diligence, interest one’s self
most earnestly
Virtue – Moral
excellence, courage, fortitude, constancy
Knowledge - True wisdom, by which your
faith will be increased, and your courage directed, and preserved from
degenerating into rashness.
Temperance –
self control, continent.
Godliness
– the inward exercise of grace: faith, hope, love, reverence and godly
fear, or external: worship, prayer, praise, hearing of the word, and attendance
on all ordinances.
Brotherly
kindness – love of the brothern
Charity – Love to
all mankind, including your enemies.
Barren – unemployed,
inactive, idle.
Unfruitful –
having no fruit.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is
no law.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the
flesh with the affections and lusts.
Gal 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in
the Spirit.
[1]Chambers,
Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year. Grand
Rapids, MI : Discovery House Publishers, 1993, c1935, S. May 10
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