A lone cross-country runner, sweating and breathing hard, pounds the dirt of the trail. The miles pass, and his straining muscles feel every one of them, his body feeling heavier with every stride. He continues running, mile after mile, his body aching, his legs burning. He pushes on because he has a goal, and he must put forth all his energies and efforts to attain it.

In a college library, a young man studies books on computer science, desiring to gain technical knowledge to find a job in this field. To achieve his goal takes time and hard work. He expends every effort to educate himself to accomplish his objective.

A middle-aged woman helps a room full of children explore music by playing with and listening to various instruments. As the children laugh and begin to understand each instrument's different sounds and tones, she smiles, all her efforts to help them learn with joy rewarded.

What is effort? Webster's New World Dictionary defines effort as:

1. The use of energy to get something done, the exertion of strength or mental power.

2. An attempt, endeavor or try to do something.

3. A product or result of working, or trying; achievement.

4. Paying close attention; diligence.

Without a farmer's efforts to grow produce, grocery stores would lack the food to feed the population. The farmer expends his energy, equipment, and money to buy seed, plow the ground, fertilize, weed, and irrigate his fields to grow a crop of produce worthy of going to market. If all goes well, his efforts pay off in financial profit and personal satisfaction.

Similarly, the rancher must work strenuously to raise his cattle, sheep, goats, or horses. He must diligently exert his energies to achieve his goal of breeding, feeding, and caring for the animals until they are ready to sell. Proverbs 27:23 advises, "Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and attend to your herds." Without such persistent effort, the rancher would not know if rustlers were stealing his animals, if dogs were killing some of his sheep, if a cow was having difficulty delivering her calf, if some hunter was using his cattle as practice targets, or if his animals were getting out through a hole in the fence.

As parents, we urge our children to pay close attention to our instructions, as Proverbs 4:1 reads: "Hear, my children, the instruction of a father, and give attention to know understanding" (see also Proverbs 4:20). We ask them to study hard in school to learn as much as they can. As all parents have over the centuries, we want our children to achieve a certain goal or live up to a particular standard. We want them to be obedient, faithful, honest, trustworthy, and diligent. We desire for them to have a good understanding of the truth, keep God's commandments, and be excellent friends, employees, and citizens. To accomplish this goal, both parents and children need to work diligently. As Proverbs 22:6 famously reads, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

The Word of God teaches that both the Father and the Son have been working since the beginning (John 5:17)! For millennia, God has been making every effort to produce children in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). This is God's overriding goal, one the Father and Son will never stop laboring over until billions of sons and daughters stand before Them in the Kingdom of God! In this endeavor, God created everything, including a wonderful place for humanity to live. Their labors toward that goal are ongoing in us, a spiritual creation of holy, godly character.

A story recorded in Mark 5 may help us comprehend the effort we must take as we cooperate with God in this spiritual creation. Mark tells the reader that a woman sought to be healed of an affliction for some years. She went to different doctors and tried many solutions to cure the illness plaguing her. But despite all her efforts, she found no relief or cure. She had spent all her money trying to find a cure and endured a great deal of suffering and pain over the years. Not only was she not cured, but her illness also worsened.

We pick up the story in Mark 5:27-29:

When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, ‘If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.' Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.

For years, the woman had exhausted herself and her money trying to find a cure. Yet, when she turned her efforts to seek Jesus, even merely to touch His clothes, she found the healing that had eluded her: "He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction'" (Mark 5:34).

Jesus Himself labored constantly and mightily all His life. Before His ministry began, Scripture says He worked as a carpenter, a job demanding both physical and mental hard work. At the time, it likely combined the jobs of architect, engineer, designer, buyer, accountant, manager, and laborer. He had to work hard to support His family on the wages He earned.

Then, after His ministry began, He continued to work, though His emphasis changed. He now traveled extensively, preaching all over the land of Israel, expending His energies in declaring the good news of the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:14). He performed healings and exorcisms upon multitudes (Matthew 4:24), taught His disciples, and engaged with the Jewish authorities.

We are called to follow Him. God has made the effort to call us from this world to join His glorious work. We were all sinners, giving our labor and energies over to pursuing pleasures and earthly goals. But through God's grace, we now throw our energies and power in a new, spiritual direction: to learn and grow in righteousness and godliness:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2)

Both God the Father and Jesus Christ have worked and are still working to accomplish the awesome goal of reproducing Themselves, expanding the Family of God by creating in us a new heart and granting us eternal life. It is a great labor that requires intense effort from both the Creator and the created. Our efforts alone will not save us, but they will enhance the process toward completing God's project. As the author of Hebrews writes:

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21)