“The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty,
But those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty.” Proverbs 21:5………….
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6………….
“Keep looking,” the Lord told me one morning. “Be diligent in this.”
I had been looking and looking – and looking – for something. I thought I had found it. What I had found was not what God wanted for me. I was exhausted from looking. I wanted to move forward already. I wanted to move on. I could easily have stopped looking. And settled. Settled for something right in front of me. Just to be done with it all. With the looking. With the seeking God, waiting for God, researching options, looking, looking, seeking and waiting. The Lord spoke to me for a reason. He knew what He wanted for me I had not yet found. He knew I could have quit looking then and there. And just taken something right in front of me. Something that wasn’t His will. Something that wasn’t in His time frame. Something that would not have been for His glory. So He told me what to do. Keep looking.
And that wasn’t all. He told me to be diligent. Why? Because He wanted me to be totally dedicated. Committed. To be serious about my looking. To work hard at it. Not to be sloppy. Not lazy. Not discouraged. Not half-hearted. But to be wholly devoted to Him and to what He was telling me to do. To keep looking, to keep seeking Him, to keep waiting on Him, to be ready when He gave me my next set of instructions to follow them.
My friend, sometimes we settle for what’s right in front of us because we’re tired of seeking God, tired of looking, of researching, of considering our options, of waiting, and we want the comfort and security and peace of mind of having an answer, of knowing God’s will already, of being able to go forward with His will already, or of choosing not to if we’re going to foolishly disobey Him. So we convince ourselves we don’t need to seek God anymore, and we settle for what’s right in front of us, or grab something we know is wrong, or convince ourselves what’s not His will is His will, and we stop looking, stop seeking God, we move onto other things, to other matters, and we refuse to endure, to persevere, to hang in there, to keep looking to the Lord for an answer, to keep looking for His will, to keep waiting on Him to speak to our hearts. We fail to be diligent in seeking Him.
I had been looking at, and researching, options for a big step forward in my life, and the Lord knew I was becoming weary, and could easily have quit looking, and simply convinced myself to take what was right in front of me so I could be done with the looking, with the waiting. With the waiting on God. He knew what I needed.
I needed to trust Him. That He would give me the answer in His time. And that in the meantime, I needed to press forward in seeking Him, and in looking at options, believing He would show me what to do when He wanted to, and being prepared when He showed me what to do, to say yes, and to obey Him, when the time was right.
Please don’t hurry into something that’s not God’s will because you don’t want to keep seeking Him. Keep seeking Him. Keep looking to Him. Keep researching options if that’s what He’s showing you to do. Most of all, wait on the Lord. He will answer. In His time. For His glory. Our job is to place our trust in Him, and to wait, and to do as He says as we wait, even if that means to continue looking – diligently – at our options as we wait for the Lord to lead us forth!