Earnestness

The significance of earnestness

In repentance

Joel 2:12 ESV

12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

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In seeking God

Jeremiah 29:13 ESV

13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

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In salvation

Luke 13:24 ESV

24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

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In love for God

Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV

5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

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In prayer

2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV

14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

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In trusting God

Proverbs 3:5 ESV

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

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In spiritual progress

Philippians 2:12–13 ESV

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

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In serving God

Matthew 6:24 ESV

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

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Examples of earnestness

In seeking God

Psalm 63:1 ESV

1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

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In prayer

Acts 12:5 ESV

5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

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In evangelism

1 Corinthians 9:19–22 ESV

19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

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In Christian living

Philippians 3:13–14 ESV

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

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Regarding personal needs

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Jesus Christ’s own earnestness

Matthew 26:39 ESV

39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

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Earnest concern for the people of God

For Israel

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For the church

2 Corinthians 11:28–29 ESV

28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?

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Earnestness may be misdirected

Romans 11:7 ESV

7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened,

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