Can You Hope Your Way To Success?

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. Proverbs 13:4.

It’s 1:20 a.m., and a woman is up searching through the refrigerator for something to eat. Why? It’s because she’s pregnant and has an insatiable appetite for food that is not simply intended for her enjoyment, but for the growth of the baby that is growing within her body.

If her hunger can’t be satisfied with a Snickers bar and she wants something unusual that can only be obtained from a fast food restaurant, then off her husband goes to get the food that will make his wife satisfied.

If she merely expressed having a craving but did nothing about it, by either looking for something herself, or to ask her husband to get it for her, she would never get what her stomach wants so badly.

The interesting observation here is that the sluggard, the one who is lazy has a desire that is deep within their life but that is all that it is. It’s a desire with no real motivation to have that desire satisfied.

It’s Hope Island to them and they only hope to get there without putting forth the effort that's necessary.

Contrary to the lazy one there is one who is diligent who has the desire, but their result is much different. Their desire is accompanied with action because they are enthusiastic in seeing their desire fulfilled.

There is no way that a person could remain having a careless attitude about work and expect to still be employed for very long. Their list of excuses multiples with every question of interest regarding why they are not willing to put in the effort to work when they are fully capable of doing so.

Anything that is worth having is worth working for, and working diligently for it too. It will never come easy, but it will be worth it, and in my opinion, God has to be kept first in that pursuit. (Matthew 6:33)

God cannot be an accessory to success. He must be the priority because of it, and this applies to anything in life.

I don’t know who David Bednar is, but I like this quote from him, 

“Ordinary people who faithfully, diligently, and consistently do simple things that are right before God will bring forth extraordinary results.”

If you desire to grow in your prayer life, then begin to be diligent with preparing to meet with God in prayer.

If you desire to grow in your knowledge of God through Scripture, then be diligent to schedule time to read the Bible.

If your desire is to buy a home, or make other investments for the future, then develop a plan how that goal will be achieved.

If you desire to have a stronger marriage between you and your spouse, desiring it alone won’t make things better. Only hard work, open communication, trust, sacrifice, love and a willingness to compromise will contribute to being richly supplied, or fulfilled.

If you desire to achieve whatever level of success and recognition for what you do where you work, then don’t be the person who is all talk and has nothing to show how badly they really wanted to achieve that goal.

What is something that you deeply want to become a fulfillment in your life? Is it merely a wish? Is it something that you can achieve because you are capable, but you’re not willing to work hard for? Are you enthusiastic about those desires becoming a reality in your life?

Consider these words in closing from Benjamin Franklin, "Diligence overcomes difficulties; sloth makes them."