The Rewards of Diligent Work – (BCday#23) ~ blog

Would you call yourself a hard worker? Can you take on a task, plan your work, get the necessary things you need to do the task, and then accomplish it on time and within budget?

Those skills are very valuable in life, but everyone needs help and assistance along the way. For example, I have zero training in plumbing. And yet I have installed 4 hot water tanks and 5 toilets on my own. And I am happy to say the job, though frustrating at times were all completed by me and was fully functional without any disasters along the way. Although I must thank YouTube for the information I was lacking.

I think some people think that the reason someone becomes addicted to sex and porn is that they are either dumb or lazy or both. I found that working with thousands of men over the past 12+ years in 180 I do not find that to be true. Anybody can become addicted to porn, and it is not a reflection of how smart they are.

For example, I have worked with and am working with some amazingly successful people. In our Online Support Teams, we have the average blue-collar workers, but we also have surgeons, doctors, dentists, a neurological psychiatrist, and a Pediatric Intensive Care Physician, engineers, and medical school students. We also have men who drive trucks for a living…even garbage trucks, mechanics, and cooks. Men who own their own companies and men unemployed and looking for work.

My point is this is every man’s battle regardless of your level of education and where you might fall relative to income. And one of the things I have noticed is that in spite of one’s education or income level one thing separates those who are successful in their recovery and those who are not. Men finding success in their recovery…

“…work diligently for it.”

Sure, we get plenty of men wanting the quick fix, just get me delivered of this so that they can get on with their lives. However, more often than not, they find themselves getting on without their wives. If one is married there should be an added motivation to recover to save their marriage and keep their family together.

Notice what Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:5-11…

“Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”

Wow…there is a lot in that passage…far more than I can comment on in one email/podcast. Peter gives us the things on which we need to be diligently working. But notice what he says in the 2nd paragraph. If these qualities are yours, because you have been working on them diligently, and increasingly your life will not be a waste of time. You will be useful and fruitful.

If we do not do this…applying diligence and working on our recovery something interesting happens. We become blind or short-sighted/near-sighted. Our nearsightedness results in us forgetting about our forgiveness and that we are cleansed of all our former sins.

This is why men trapped in their sexual brokenness begin to doubt their salvation because they are wallowing around in the promise of pleasure from porn and not diligently working on their relationship with Jesus.

However, the opposite is true. If you begin to work diligently on learning more and growing more in Jesus…

“…the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”

Listen, my friends…you know that I strongly believe that we are saved by grace and not by our works. We are not talking about whether you are saved or not. There is great value in all of us working diligently not only on making progress in your recovery but growing into a more Christ-like believer.

So, forget about the quick fix or instant deliverance. Many will proclaim they know the secret or have the key to unlock your bonding chains. What I know to be true are the words of this passage and that the fruit of recovery comes from diligent work…daily work in not only your recovery but also for you progressing in the life God has for you.

This summer I want to start three new Online Support Teams so contact me if you would like to be in one…or one of the 14 others we currently have.

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