DILIGENT HANDS IN SERVICE (3)

“If they OBEY and SERVE HIM, they shall spend their day in PROSPERITY, and their years in PLEASURES” – Job 36:11

Divine prosperity, pleasures, promotion, and distinction are the portions of DILIGENT HANDS in SERVICE: “If they OBEY and SERVE HIM, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. But if they do noy obey, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge” (Job 36: 11-12). Service and Reward are tied together. Outside of diligent, faithful service, there can be no enduring, reward. God, the impartial judge knows who is due for a reward and when such a reward should come; but diligence is an indispensable factor: “Seeest thou a man DILIGENT in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men” (Pro.22:29, KJV).

God, the Author of Sustainable Promotion and Exaltation, cannot be deceived: “Do not lift up your horn on high; do not speak with a stiff neck.” For exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the Judge: He puts down one, and exalts another” (Psa.75: 5-7). When God judges a person faithful, he sets him up. And whoever is promoted by God cannot be demoted by men.  Except one is lifted by God, he or she will be pulled down unceremoniously. It’s only the blessings of the Lord that make rich and add no sorrow – anxiety, uncertainty, worry, and insomnia (Pro.10:22). Faithful stewardship and diligent service open us up to sweatless blessings!

God’s blessings – favour, provisions, and protection – flow to those who serve Him and He ensures that anything that will constitute a clog in the wheel of their service is removed. Serving God diligently insulates us against any onslaught of infirmity – inherited or communicable: “So you shall SERVE the Lord your God, and He will BLESS your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days” (Exo.23: 25-26). And, whatever sickness God takes away, no devil can put it back on us! Moreover, when God blesses the bread of the diligent, profit, increase and multiplication set in: “In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty” (Pro.14:23).

It's abundantly clear from scriptures that faithful and diligent service speaks out in times of need. God is committed to supernaturally deliver those who serve Him consistently and diligently, and out of a glad and perfect heart. David found the type of “touch not” favour he had before God because he served acceptably and gladly from his HEART and diligently by his ACTIONS: “So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his HEART and guided them by the skillfulness of his HANDS” (Psa.78:72). His service to God was motivated by his love for God. He knew that the only type of service that would stand the test of time and eternity is one that is rendered out of a perfect heart. In contrast, King Saul served God, but from an imperfect heart and with carelessness and indolence; and ultimately God rejected him.

In rejecting Saul, God described David is such glowing: “The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people” (1Sam.13:14b). Acts 13:22 echoes this: “He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.”  That was God’s testimony to David’s life of willing, diligent, and heart-driven service. Acts 13:36 concludes that David “SERVED GOD’S PURPOSE in his own generation” (NIV). That was one individual that God exalted and promoted into distinction, who never experienced demotion.

In essence, Diligence in Service is supernaturally linked to Distinction: “They shall be Mine,” says the lord of hosts, “on the day that I make them My Jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his son who SERVES him” (Mal.3:17). The diligent in servcie become God’s Jewels!