Use Your Brain! Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Use Your Brain! -------------------------- Date: 12/16/2000 Keywords: "diligence" "diligent" "truth" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: 2 Timothy 2:15* Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth. Question 1. What does "be diligent" in this verse mean?   2. In what areas of your life do you show diligence, and in what areas of your life do you show slothfulness?   Practical help Put your thinking cap on. Let’s break this verse down together. "Be diligent." What does this look like? What is the apostle Paul asking young Timothy and us to do here? The King James version says it this way. "Study to shew thyself approved unto God…" We are to study. Study what? Does the verse say? Oh, there it is at the end. "The word of truth" is the Word of God or the Bible. We are to study the Bible with intensity (all diligence). Do you do this? If you do, then you are learning that it takes work to understand what God is saying and how different issues in life balance out. It isn’t enough to say that God is love and not see that God will judge us, too. Avoid falling into the trap of believing God won't deal with your sin because He is too loving. Go deeper. Study harder. Why go to all this work when surfing the Net for porn is so much easier? The verse also gives a good answer to this question. We study so that we will not stand ashamed before God. I think He will ask you how you used the gift of life He gave. Did you squander it or develop it into something beautiful? That is a choice no one can make for you while you are off looking at nude people. God has given you something precious called life, and He expects you to use it wisely — and wisdom comes as you diligently study God’s Word. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2000 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."