Regularity and Promptness Are Religious Duties

To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. Colossians 1:29, NKJV.

God has entrusted His sacred work to human beings, and He asks that they shall do it carefully.... They press too many things into their life, postpone until tomorrow that which demands their attention today, and much time is lost in painfully picking up the lost stitches. Men and women can reach a higher degree of usefulness than to carry with them through life an unsettled state of mind. They can improve the defective traits of their character contracted in their younger years. Like Paul, they can labor to reach a much higher degree of perfection.

The work of God must not be done by fits and starts. It will not be placed on vantage ground by following a sudden impulse. On the contrary, it is positively necessary to follow the good work patiently, day by day, progressing in our ways and methods. One should get up at a regular hour. If during the day the work is neglected, and the following night is spent in making up for lost time, the morrow and following day will show, as a result, a wearied brain and a general fatigue which constitute positive violations of the law of life and health.

There should be regular hours for rising, for family worship, for meals, and for work. And it is a religious duty ... to maintain this by precept ... by a firm example. Many squander the most precious hours of the morning hoping that they can terminate the work thus neglected during the hours which should be devoted to sleep. Godliness, health, success, everything suffers from this lack of true religious system....

Some workers need to give up the slow methods of work which prevail, and to learn to be prompt. Promptness is necessary, as well as diligence. If we wish to accomplish the work according to the will of God, it must be done in an expeditious manner, but not without thought and care.—Manuscript Releases 8:326, 327.