Be Steadfast

The Lord’s insight. The deeper you go into the Word, the more the Word will grow in you.

1 Corinthians 15:58: “Therefore my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

2 Peter 3:18: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Many of you know that I coach people, mostly business executives. I am often asked where do great people hang out? We assume great people live, work and play at the same things we do but just in different ways. Well, they do not. Great people do not “hang out.” You do not find them in groups like you find others. Great people are like eagles. You find them alone, standing and living above the very things other people live in.

Great people do not gather together and protest like others do. They do not spend their time commenting and sharing their views over social media as others do. They keep their opinions to themselves when others run to share something with people they don’t know about things they don’t understand.

Great people are this way because they are steadfast about their growth and development. They stand alone because they will not stand in the places we stand and they will not do the things we do. They see life as a place of constant and continued growth.

Believers should be this way. But we are steadfast about the thing that is not the most productive. We believe in coming together in fellowship and sharing with one another and with others. This is right because we are called to fellowship. But these things are always ready to do because doing many things is easy. But often times, we are ready to do before the work of the Word is finished preparing us to abound in the things we do.

1 Corinthians 15:58 encourages us to abound in our work in the Lord. To abound is to be lavish and to almost have no limit to the things we do. But that is just one part of our work. 1 Peter 3:18 tells us to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. Many of us may think this means having more of the Lord’s grace and knowledge.

But for me, while it means to have more grace and knowledge, it also means that the grace and the knowledge about the Lord has more of me. It grows in me so I am able to grow in how much I can have of it.

When the believer grows in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, he can be steadfast and abound in the work of the Lord. When we are diligent in our growth it will show up in the work others see that has been done in us.

Believers are in many ways like the eagle. The hard work in us is done as we stand apart and alone with just us and the Lord. We must understand that growth in the Lord is work that is done in the soil of the Word of God. It is work that is below the surface of our lives. It is work that grows deep down into the Word so that the Word can grow deep into the roots of our lives. This way, the Word becomes our firm foundation to which we are anchored.

Eagles and great people don’t hang out because this work is always being done in them. We must allow the work of the Word to be engaged into our lives when we are in the dark. We don’t grow in our knowledge as much as the Word grows into our lives and it reveals itself in us in the form of grace and knowledge unknown to others.

So, learn to be steadfast and immovable in your growth and in your development. Make sure you allow the work of the Word to happen in the quiet and in the unseen soil of your life. If you do this, what people see in the light of your life will be the manifestation of the work that has been done in the darkest areas of your life.

We must grow deeper before we can grow higher. A believer must grow down in the soil of things as much as he grows up into the light of things. We are naturally drawn to light, but the hard work is to make it natural for us to be drawn to the dark hard work in the soil of life.

If you find a strong believer you will probably find someone who is seemingly slower to speak, who listens more than they share, who stands behind more than they stand out front, and who seeks more understanding than they seek to be understood.

They are steadfast in these ways. If you are steadfast in allowing the Work of the Word to do its work in the soil of your life, He will make you abound in grace and in knowledge so that the things you do in the light are a reflection of the work of the Word done the dark.

Live a Delivered Life.