PURPOSEFUL AND PERSEVERING HARD WORK: THE UNFAILING SECRET OF SUCCESS

PURPOSEFUL AND PERSEVERING HARD WORK: THE UNFAILING SECRET OF SUCCESS:

And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them. And Isaac servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac’s herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him. And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah. And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land. Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became great: For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him. (Genesis 26:17-22, 12-14).

Beloved, like I hinted when I started the series on the intriguing discoveries and revelations that authors of the Holy Bible is about Christ,we are taking a leave of that series momentarily TO look this topic introduced above.

Actually, our topic today, "PURPOSEFUL AND PERSEVERING HARDWORK: THE UNFAILING SECRET OF SUCCESS: ” is borrowed from an African proverb, which says that, ‘hard work is the medicine for poverty.’ And this literally summarizes the life of Isaac, as we saw in our text above. The life of this son of destiny from the loins of Abraham, demonstrates to us that the only solution to poverty, mediocrity and lack in life is purposeful and persevering hard work. That is, putting ones nose to the grindstone in order to experience breakthrough in any enterprise that one is engaged in.

As a matter of fact, but for hard work and industry, Isaac would not have achieved the level of success that he achieved despite being the Abraham's seed of promise.

Life, generally speaking, will only reward the dutiful, industrious, hard-worker and diligent. Without these virtues in any life, such a person should forget about success and the ability to break loose from the vice-grip of poverty and lack. Now, this hard work, is such an important matter as far as success in life is concerned, that Robert Schuller, one of the leading possibility thinkers of his time, posited that, “hard work is the price we pay for success.” In other words, laziness is the price we pay for poverty, lack and mediocrity.
As usual, we will examine three eye-opening points under this subject. They are:

1. SOBERING EXAMPLE OF PURPOSEFUL AND PERSEVERING HARD WORK FROM OUR CREATOR:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And God saw every thing that HE had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. But Jesus answered them, my Father worketh hitherto, and I work. (Genesis 1:1, 31; John 5:17)

God is a worker, a hard worker for that matter. Think about HIS work of creation. Think on the orderliness and organization. Then, think about the unearthly architectural arrangement and design of the universe. Also, think about the seasons, the days and nights. Do you notice the order and stream lining of every work of God’s creation? Can such a great job come from a lazy man? Of course no. It takes a hard working being to put all these things in their place and order.

What are we positing? We are stating that the Almighty God, our creator is a perfect example of a purposeful and persevering hard worker. Now, if such is the case, we do not have any reason, whatsoever, to be lazy. We must work hard to make a success out of this interesting life.

2. SCRIPTURAL EXHORTATION TO PURPOSEFUL AND PERSEVERING HARD WORK FOR ALL CREATURES:
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)
It says, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might (strength, energy, heart, resourcefulness, enthusiasm,earnestness, industry,etc) … Now, what is the Scripture saying? It says that, first of all, you have to find your hands something to do, that is, enterprise. Don’t be a loafer, don't be an idler. Get yourself engaged in a productive venture. Find them, If they are not there, create them. Use your mind. Secondly, the Scripture exhorts that we should give our best to whatever enterprise we have found ourselves in. Ours must be total commitment to what we do in order to hammer out success, and of course,excellence. There is no room for halfheartedness, if we are going to succeed in any endeavor.

3. SUPERCEDING EXALTATION FOR PURPOSEFUL AND PERSEVERING HARD WORK AND CREATIVITY:
Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men. (Proverbs 22:29)
Purposeful and persevering hard work and creativity engenders excellence and exaltation (Promotion). Did you notice something in that verse of Proverbs? It reads, “Seest thou a man…” that is to say, any man or woman, no matter his/her background, circumstances or challenges. Any man or woman, anywhere, that can work hard will be promoted and rewarded by God, and even mortal men and women, invariably.

Now, in conclusion, dear reader, may I remind you that, we cannot work hard if we do not have life. And, we cannot have life without God. It follows, therefore, that everything we do in this life depends of God. And that is what I want you to do this day. Give your life to Jesus, so that HE can give you the enabling power to succeed. God bless you as you do that in Jesus name, Amen.

Source: Chidiebere Dennis Owah