Winning Every Contest

All of us, to some degree, have experienced the outcomes of some endeavor. It may have been horrible or just bad, or maybe mediocre or all right, or really good or great or absolutely fantastic. Too some degree, in my short 50 something years, I have experienced all of these outcomes.

If you take a close look at some of the most successful people in history, you’ll learn that they also have experiences the entire spectrum of outcomes such as these. However, if you look at the area of their greatest endeavor, you’ll clearly see that all, without exception, win their goals by using one principle or skill that Solomon purports to be of the greatest necessity.

When you study the success training Bible study, you’ll read that same concept (skill) repeated time and time again. When you study the lives of our founding fathers, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and other or study the lives of John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Sam Walton, Walt Disney, Bill Gates and many others you’ll see this skill used without fail. This skill is so incredibly powerful that hardly any achievement is ever reached or accomplished without its use.

This skill, of which Solomon was convinced, is not a difficult skill to learn; yet very few learn it. The difficulty lies in its application. With all of the advertising and marketing done today, we are program to expect ‘instant gratification’. We want what we want and we want it now in abundance. We try things for a little while but if we cannot get the maximum return with the least effort, we give up and move on. This is precisely why there is so much money made by get rich quick scam artist. People today want to sit on the coach and have a magic business that just pours money into their bank account with as little effort as possible. Instant gratification with as little effort as possible is no different than play a lottery and very rarely rewarding.

This skill that has been the one key to success for many is as Solomon puts it ‘diligence’. The dictionary defines of diligence is - constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken; persistent exertion of body or mind. Often we are told that diligence is equivalent to ‘hard work’, but this is not necessarily true. Solomon helps us understand that diligence is ‘working smarter not harder’. I have a friend who is extremely successful and he always told me that success comes from working smarter and not harder. There are many out there in life who work hard all of their lives but never succeed.

Diligence is not a natural trait of human beings. Our natural drive is to get as much as we can, as quickly as we can with as little effort as possible. Diligence is an acquired or learned skill that takes ‘perseverance’, ‘dedications’ and ‘motivation.’

In order for us to fully understand what Solomon’s concept of diligence was we must look at his reference point. Solomon was involved in mining. His choice of a word that has been translated ‘diligent’ has its roots in mining. He even admonishes us to seek wisdom and understand as though we were looking for gold or silver (again a mining reference).

In Proverbs 20:11 (NIV) Solomon tells us. “Even a child is known by his actions,by whether his conduct is pure and right.”

We see than diligence is not simply ‘perseverance’, ‘dedications’ and ‘motivation.’ It is also initiated by what is pure and right. When we take the example of mining we again can understand ‘pure’. We dig and dig and dig until we find a nugget of ore. We take that ore and apply heat until all of the impurities are burned away leaving the pure gold or silver. We can apply this to our study of success. We diligently study until we find that nugget of wisdom. By apply the heat that is generated by situations in our life, we burn away all that does not have a use until we are left with the pure nugget of wisdom that will give us the result that we need.

Diligence, therefore, is a learnable skill that is comprised of creative persistence, a ‘work-smarter’ effort that is rightly planned and performed in an efficient, effective and timely manner that results in pure and high quality of excellence.

Don’t let self-doubt enter in. At this point you may be thinking that you do not posses the qualities that are necessary to be a creative and persistent person. You do have these qualities. They are raw and possibly well hidden beneath the rubble of your life but they can be mined and refined simply by a little effort. You enemy in this physical world does not want you to succeed. Your success is to the glory of God and the ruler of this world does not want you to bring glory to Christ. He will be diligent in his efforts to discourage you. Be persistent and motivated by the purest of motivations – developing a closer relationship with Christ in order to learn and bring God glory through Christ.

Always remember that you are a member of the royal family of the King of Kings. You are a special creation of the Creator of the Universe. You were creates on purpose and with a purpose. Almighty God loves you dearly and not only wants you to succeed in life but also has given you the method and means. All you need to do is ‘study to show yourself approved in the eyes of God’.

Lets take a close look at some of the outcomes or rewards that you will realize by developing ‘diligence.’ It is natural for human being to see the path of least resistance. It is our nature to ‘go with the flow’ and not to ‘swim upstream’. Solomon understood that we need to be motivated to take a path that is not as easy as the one that we have pursued. He tell us that being truly diligent will bring us priceless rewards, while a lack of diligence will result in devastating consequences. Following is a list of some of the rewards that Solomon has listed for us as a motivation to become diligent.

Before we begin with Solomon’s list, let me interject that the truest reward is a deep and personal relationship with Christ. That is the best reward that you will ever need and should ever want. As you continue through this success training you will begin to realize the absolute truth of this.