Finish What He Started

Giving up in life has become the new easy. If something becomes too hard, we just quit and move on to the next great adventure or idea. A trail of unfinished products and projects are strewn behind us like a pathway of defeat and misery. If things don’t go our way, we just find a new way. Abandonment is how we deal with setbacks.

Aren’t you glad God doesn’t give up on us so easy? Imagine if God saw my behavior and said, “That’s it David, I can’t take this relationship anymore! You’ve failed me one time too many.” Now, if God was like that He would have given up on me some thirty years ago. Thankfully our God is abundantly gracious and merciful. I love the chorus from the MercyMe song “Finish What He Started:”

No matter what you’ve done
Grace comes like a flood
There’s hope to carry on
He’ll finish what He started
No matter what you face
His mercy will not change
He’s with you all the way
He’ll finish what He started

I don’t know what the statistics are worldwide, but I do know that Americans give up on relationships too easily. No-fault divorces make dissolving marriages simple and walking away from commitments everyday occurrences. Rock-solid contracts are needed not only in business dealings, but also in marriage. Thankfully we can have more confidence in God:

“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)

Was there a man who failed, feared, and fled more in life than David? This man not only allowed his lust to bring him to commit adultery and murder, but his poor behavior also caused him to be fearful for his life. Both King Saul and David’s son Absalom sought to kill him, and yet in his old age he knew that God had not forsaken him:

“I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.” (Psalm 3:5-6)

It is enticing to trust our eyes and ears, to take into account man’s common sense and advice when facing a trial. However, sometimes the best advice doesn’t allows make sense. There are times as we read Scripture that only eyes of faith will allow us to see what God is trying to do in our lives.

Jesus does call us to count the cost in following Him, but He also exhorts us to have faith in Him and God the Father. When we look around us and see only oppression, God sees opportunity for His glory. My confidence must be placed in God if I am to live the victorious Christian life. No matter what we face in life, we must always run to God:

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1)

Think on that verse for a moment. When we are facing troubling times, what do we normally think and say? “What am I going to do?”

We need to pray because God is already there in the midst of our troubles; He is “a very present help in trouble.” Do you remember when Elijah was fleeing from Jezebel and he went into a cave to hide? Who was there waiting on him?

“And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’” (1 Kings 19:9)

There are not many assurances in life, but one of the greatest gifts from God we receive as Christians is knowing that Jesus will never leave us or forsake us.

This means we need to live our lives knowing that God is not done with us yet because He will finish what He started.

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2016 David Jeffers

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