Where people lack diligence in the natural, they often lack diligence in spiritual things. People who aren't diligent to arrive at work on time, or who aren't diligent to fulfill a job or requirement they are given—are usually the same way with God.

God tells them to do something. They might do it or they might not. It depends on how they feel, what the weather is like that day, what someone says about it or doesn't say about it.

And then they wonder why they aren't being blessed more.

I'm saying to you: this is the hour for diligence and steady application to the business at hand.

You may be questioning, "What business are you talking about?" I'm talking about the greatest business on earth—the Father's great Kingdom business! Jesus said, "...I must be about my Father's business" (Luke 2:49).

God Wants You to Bear Fruit
Did you know that it is possible for a person to have the knowledge of Jesus, yet be barren and unfruitful? Consider this passage from 2 Peter:

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be bareen nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(2 Peter 1:5-8)

People can have the knowledge of God, know about the Lord, and even know about these truths, but Peter says these things must be diligently added to your life.

Verse 9 says, "But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off...." Many people just live in the here and now. They live in a matchbox. They don't perceive eternal things. They live only for the temporal.

Peter says the person who doesn't see the addition of these things in his life "...is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins" (v. 9).

"Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and your election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall" (v. 10).

God Rewards Those Who Diligently Seek Him
Heb 11:1 and 5 says "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that his is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

These two verses tie together. Faith is the title deed to the things we do not see or perceive in the natural, but we have the assurance of them inside of our heart.

When we come to God, we must do two things:

1. Believe Him
2. Believe that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him

What are we called to be diligent about? At this point, I'm speaking specifically about spiritual diligence. Hebrews 11:6 says that God rewards those who diligently seek Him.

Are you into the rewards of God? Many people aren't. They don't think about God's rewards. People who don't think about rewards don't have any motivation to live any better than they are already living. They say, "God, take it or leave it. This is the way I am. I'm not going to make any effort. I'm just going to be the way I am. I love You, I like You, but...."

This kind of an attitude causes a lack of diligence.

In speaking to the seven churches in Rev 2 and 3, Jesus said through John that there are rewards to the overcomer.

For example, in Revelation chapter three, Jesus said:

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my god, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
(Rev. 3:12)

Why did Jesus write all those things? Because God is a God of His Word. He rewards those who diligently seek Him.

He is seeking to motivate us to be all we can be. The greatest reward anyone could receive is, "well done, thou good and faithful servant."

If we are faithful and diligent in what the Lord calls us to do, those rewards will manifest, because they are for those who please the Lord.

Are you one of them?

Source: Diligence Produces Results by Billy Joe Daugherty
Excerpt permission granted by Victory Christian Center