Over the years, I have been fortunate to know many people who by the world's standards were considered to be very successful. The one common bond that they all had was "hard work". You can't hit a home run if you are sitting in the bleachers. More important, you can't just walk up to home plate either. You have to work hard to earn a place on the team. You have to work hard to get into the line-up. You have to put in the hard work, the sweat, deal with the ups and downs to even get yourself in a position to come up to bat! One of the realities of life is that God is always working in our life, but for positive things to happen in our life, we must put ourselves in a position for them to happen.

Does that mean that if we simply work hard, great things will happen to us? Absolutely not, at least not by the world's standards. The world says that to be successful you must have great wealth, great power. Like all things, to have a great relationship with Jesus, we must work hard. While the hard work you put forth in your earthly pursuits may provide great results for the few years that you live, the hard work that you put forth in your relationships with Jesus will provide great results for eternity! You have to pray every day. You have to read your Bible every day. While hard work may not always give you great earthly rewards, hard work in relationship with Jesus will give you eternal rewards. We must never lose sight of the fact that we choose each day what is important to us, how we spend our time. While we should be serious about our earthly pursuits, we must never forget that our number one priority is our daily walk with the Lord.

There is no substitute for hard work. There are no short-cuts to having a great relationship with the Lord. While we have to work hard in school, in our careers, to enjoy this time here on earth, we must work just as hard on our relationship with the Lord. While the work we put forth in our earthly pursuits will pay off for the few years that we are here, the work that we put forth in our relationship with the Lord will pay off for eternity. Success in our earthly pursuits will only happen when we work hard and do our best. Likewise, success in our relationship with Christ will only happen when we work hard and do our best. Never forget, the things of this world will one day be left behind, but our relationship with Jesus is for eternity. Work hard on it every day.

…As unto the Lord || More