Devotional – Honor and Diligence

Devotional

Big picture Give strong efforts with a respect attitude, in a manner to please God.

• Q: Why should we act honorably and be diligent in all we do? Because these are absolute and unchanging TRUTHS about God.
• God is Holy and calls us to “be Holy as I am Holy.”
• Also, God never stops working His ultimate plan. He is diligent to pursue humanity through all of history and will continue until Jesus returns again at the end of this age.
• God is diligent, so we must be diligent. Diligence means putting your time and energy (effort) into completing tasks assigned to you. It means effort. Working hard at the work God has for you.
• The opposite of diligence is being lazy, the bible calls that slothfulness. Think of the animal sloth who moves so slow and sleeps most of the time hanging from a tree doing nothing. Don’t be a sloth.
• Honor means giving all people great respect, especially to God and your parents.
• The opposite of honor is disrespecting people. No one likes to be disrespected and it dishonors God. Christians should be the most respectful people in the world. For we are ambassadors for God.
• How can you possibly win people to Christ by being disrespectful? No one will listen to you because you will say one thing (love others) and do another (dishonor them). We call that being a hypocrite.
• The apostle Paul said he worked harder than any of the other apostles to win converts to Christ. He was not boasting. He was setting an example and openly asked people to follow his example. We should be like Paul setting an example for others in how diligent we are and how we honor all people.
• The teaching verse talks about being diligent in what we say (our word) and what we do (our deeds).
• The teaching verse also says how we are to be diligent and honoring by 1) doing it all for the Lord, and 2) giving thanks always in all things to the Lord.