When Billy Graham was a boy, the clock would chime at 2:30 a.m., waking the entire family for another day of hard work on the farm. Billy trotted off to the barn to milk twenty cows and shovel manure. After school he milked the cows a second time. The Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards spent 13 hours a day in his study, reading his Bible and other books, praying, and preparing sermons. These men are but two examples of the way that a life of hard work can bear tremendous fruit.
Does Jesus expect you to get up at 2:30? Probably not. Does He expect you to spend 13 hours a day in study and in prayer? I doubt it.
But those of us who grew up in post-war America, a land of television, fast-food, and microwave ovens, often err on the side of a lazy, comfortable life.
Don’t we? Few of us push ourselves much. Are there people who drive themselves relentlessly, to the point of physical and emotional exhaustion? Yes. And there is harm in that. After all, Jesus said, “Come unto Me, all ye who are weary and heavily burdened, and I will give you rest … For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” Matthew 11:28-30.
If you drive yourself like a mule skinner, cracking the whip all day, never satisfied, no matter the effort, you may need to meditate hard on the words of Jesus in Matthew 11. Have you accepted His free gift of grace and the comfort it brings?
But for most of us, the greater temptation is an easy, unexamined slothfulness.
We do as little as possible, looking away from even paying work to lose ourselves in our screens. You will never bear much fruit for the Lord if you do so little.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 8, Paul shows great respect for those who work diligently.
“Now as you excel in everything—faith, speech, knowledge, and in ALL DILIGENCE, and in your love for us, excel also in this grace. I am NOT saying this as a command … But I am giving an opinion on this because it is profitable for you who, a year ago, began to do something … But now FINISH THE TASK” 2 Corinthians 8:7-11.
Paul then describes Titus as “being VERY DILIGENT” 2 Corinthians 8:17.
Then Paul describes another Christian brother—this preacher is unnamed, but some believe he may be Apollos or Silas—“We have often tested him in many circumstances and found him to be DILIGENT—and now EVEN MORE DILIGENT because of his great confidence in you” 2 Corinthians 8:22.
In the end, I must encourage hard work. A calling from God to HARD WORK while still a teenager changed the entire course of my life.
“He who sows sparingly shall reap sparingly, but he who sows generously will also reap generously” 2 Corinthians 9:6.
Are you working hard?
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