Diligently Pursue the Heart of God

My prayers of late come from a place of brokenness, a place of earnest, a place of longing for the nearness of God.

In my study of diligence, I discovered that it means so much more than working hard. I’ve done that my entire life as I grew up in good ol’ West Texas. I know how to work hard. But lately, the hard work has felt more like running in a hamster wheel, sweaty, futile. From a place of requirement rather than from a place of the heart.

2 Peter 1:5 speaks of adding to our faith with “all diligence” the attributes of godliness that follow. I love the rich language of the word diligence. We are to seek God not merely with hard work, but with every effort, with diligence which is sincere and conscientious. Strongs concordance explains the Greek word as “earnest swiftness…we need to quickly and carefully and intensely prioritize God’s truth, adding His attributes to our faith.”

Earnest is “sincere and intense conviction;” it’s real and undeniable; it’s passionate and authentic.

Diligence is “careful and persistent work or effort” or “having or showing care and conscientiousness in one’s work or duties”

Therefore, we need to work with sincere and thorough care when it comes to increasing in the attributes of God. It’s an act of faith, not of works.

The conviction of this word and the prompting of the Spirit have been ruminating in my heart in this personal season of healing and restoration. I have known the nearness of God. I have walked with Him in faith. I have hurt. I have numbed out emotionally to keep from feeling pain-not with substances, but with work some days. With social media some days. With brainless games that help me “unwind” at the end of the day. But it doesn’t only numb the pain. It also numbs the joy. It robs delight. It robs me being fully present with my family, with my friends.

In a moment of quiet, while watering my garden, I prayed a prayer that is vulnerable because it reveals the state of my heart. “More than a move of location, I need a move of the Spirit. May I always seek Him first. May I have a passion about my calling again. May the jaded edges be refined and may hope reside in my heart again.” It’s not that I want to return to the same closeness that I’ve experienced with God in the past. It’s that I long for my heart to beat with His-like a transplant. My very existence depends on Him.

I shared this prayer with a dear friend. She replied, “that we would all pray that prayer with as much sincerity” as me, but honestly, that sincerity comes from a place of utter longing. When we are saved we rejoice because God through the sacrifice of Jesus has taken our utter depravity, our entire incapability of overcoming sin on our own, and He gifts us with, He graces us with, salvation. When we acknowledge our need, how much greater is the satiation of that need?

My initial internal response to her was the desire that no one would experience the pain that provoked such sincerity. And yet, we all already have experienced that pain-the pain of distance from God. Since the fall of mankind in the garden of Eden, we all have.

Diligence looks like hard work, but it’s not. It’s not hard because it is sincere, it’s careful, it’s conscientious. Adam and Eve worked before sin entered the world. Work is good, but it doesn’t have to be hard. May we all diligently pursue the heart of God.

We would like to thank Mary Coleman for sharing this post.