Resting With Diligence and Patience
Just as yeast works unseen to transform dough, God fulfills His promises in His perfect time.
Devotional Credit: Day by Day by Grace
Photo Credit: Unsplash
Today’s reading from Bob Hoekstra links two words that might seem at first to pull in opposite directions: diligence and patience. Both, however, are inseparable in experiencing God’s promised rest. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that rest is not simply a matter of physical relaxation or doing nothing. It is the divine relief that comes from Jesus rescuing us from both the crushing burden of sin and the exhausting strain of self-driven Christian living.
We are called to be diligent in entering this rest. Diligence here does not mean frantic activity. It means attentively and earnestly looking to Jesus each day as our source. It is about a focused eagerness to draw from His life rather than our own. This kind of diligence produces spiritual fervency, not burnout, because its fuel is not our effort but His indwelling presence.
At the same time, we are told to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Patience is not resignation. It is confident trust in God’s perfect timing. While diligence leans into God’s promises with expectancy, patience holds steady when the visible fulfillment has not yet appeared. These two qualities balance one another.
If diligence without patience can lead to anxiety, patience without diligence can lead to passivity. Together they shape a steady, hope-filled walk with the Lord, anchored in His finished work and sustained by His life within us.
Journal Entry – Voice of the Holy Spirit Through Scripture
My child, I have called you into My rest. This rest is not a distant goal, it is your present inheritance in Me. You no longer carry the weight of guilt, for I have borne it. You no longer labor to make yourself acceptable, for I have made you righteous. Come to Me daily, for I am your rest.
Be diligent to remain in Me, for in Me you bear fruit without striving. Do not allow the distractions of the world or the pressures of life to dull your eagerness. Keep your heart set on the promises I have given, for every one of them is yes in Me. Yet, remember that My timing is perfect. What I have spoken will come to pass, but not before the moment I have ordained.
Diligence will keep your heart leaning forward in expectation. Patience will keep your heart anchored in peace. Together they will guard you from fear and from weariness. Look to the examples of those who endured before you. They waited and received, not because of their strength, but because I am faithful.
I am the One who began this good work in you. I am the One who will complete it. Rest in Me while you walk in diligence, and walk in diligence while you rest in Me.
Scripture References: Hebrews 4:11, Hebrews 6:11–12, Hebrews 6:15, Romans 12:11, 2 Corinthians 1:20, Philippians 1:6, John 15:4–5, Matthew 11:28–30, Isaiah 26:3
Real-Life Analogy
Think of setting bread dough to rise. Your role is to mix the ingredients and create the right environment. The yeast does the work of expansion in its own time. If you rush it by turning up the heat, you ruin the texture. If you neglect it, it never reaches its full rise. Diligence is mixing and preparing well. Patience is allowing the process to happen without forcing it.
In the same way, your life in Jesus grows as you attentively keep your heart in His truth and presence, while also trusting His perfect timing for the unfolding of His promises. Today, when you are tempted to either push ahead or give up waiting, pause and say, “Lord, I trust You to work out Your purposes in me and through me right now.”
Prayer of Confidence
Lord, thank You that Your rest is already mine in You. Thank You that I can live each moment drawing from Your life instead of my own effort. I praise You for the promises You have spoken and the assurance that You will fulfill them at the right time. I affirm that both my eagerness to follow You and my patience to wait on You are gifts You work in me. I walk today in confidence, knowing that You are faithful to complete all You have begun.