Diligence to the Very End

 DEVOTION

TO HEBREWS

DILIGENCE TO THE VERY END

Heb 6:9-12

9 Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case — things that accompany salvation. 10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

NIV

How can we become lazy? Is it possible that in the beginning of our new life in Christ, we were so excited to be freed from the penalty of death, and wanted to serve the lord with our whole heart, but as the years wore on, our enthusiasm for serving the Lord dwindled? Maybe it is a natural phenomenon that happens with age, following the current culture we live in. Because we are expected to retire at a certain age and we think that also means working for the kingdom of God. However, the writer to the Hebrews wants us to show the same diligence to the very end, in order to make our hope sure. Does that mean if we are not showing the same diligence in our older years that we had in our youth, we lose our hope in the Lord as well? This just will not do. We will continue to serve the Lord wholeheartedly until we take our last breath. We can never retire from doing the Lord’s work, or His calling on our lives. We cannot become one of the old people who just come to church to occupy the same place in the same pew each Sunday and then go home and be the typical retiree who does nothing the rest of the week. Even if we are still employed, and busy as a beaver during the week, have we lost our excitement about Jesus, and our salvation because of the distractions of life? No, it does not matter our age, or our situations in life, we are to continue to love the Lord with our whole being and serve him, following our calling until we simply cannot move on. Indeed, someday our bodies are simply going to wear out, and we must give in to that day when our bodies quit on us, and we take that last breath. Until then, we must show the same diligence to the very end. In the immortal words of Winston Churchill, “We will Never give up.” How can we ever give up serving our Lord for He saved us from our sins, wiped them clean, cleansing us in the blood of Jesus so we are white as snow, being holy and blameless in the sight of God? We cannot, we must show our diligence to the end, for we will outlast our bodies and live on for eternity with our Lord. In that sense, we have no end, and yet as far as this body is concerned, we will work it until the end, in service to our Lord.