2 Corinthians 8:11 NIV
Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means.

The Bible is filled with examples of people who started doing things and actually finished doing them. The opposite is true as well. 

The Bible starts out the perfect example of God in Genesis. We are told how God started creation on the first day and at the end of each day He evaluated what He did and said it was good.  God not only evaluated what He did, He accomplished his agenda in six days and on the seventh day rested.

Jesus during His earthly ministry speaks frequently about the importance of finishing or completion.  He indicates that being His disciple requires us not only being willing to give up everything to follow Him but to plan to finish what we have started.   For Jesus, finishing His God given life work was so important to Him that He referred to it as His food (John 4:34, 5:36).   It was vital to His daily existence.  Without it He would be malnourished, unable to function properly or even fulfill His God given destiny. 

The question for us today is why are we not finishing what we have started?  Is it that we have not calculated the cost?  The possibility exists that we may have started things that were not ours to start or even to a part of.   Have we stopped to evaluate what we are doing? Is this why some of us feel unfulfilled or even malnourished spiritually?

What I like about the Genesis passage is that it reminds me that God evaluated His work after each day’s major assignment and affirmed its high standard.  God acknowledged that what He had set out to do was accomplished in the way He wanted it done.   So we are called to follow God through Jesus Christ and therefore it is important that we become imitators of Him in the following ways:

1. We remind ourselves that before we were born, God called us, named us and designed our life purpose so we are have a divine purpose;
2. God has placed his mind in us to enable us to know what his will is so we are operating in the same mindset as Jesus
3. God has placed his Spirit in us to assist us to communicate with Him  in order to accomplish the work. We have a direct line with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to guide each action;
4. Daily we must ensure that we are doing the will and the works of the Heavenly Father
5. Our daily food (bread) is God ‘s will and works and must be internalized and treated as such
6. We must evaluate the standard of our work so that like Jesus we will hear “This is my beloved in whom I am well pleased”
7. We must actually seek to finish the work.  Jesus was able to say “It is finished” at the end of His life.

So today, let us stop to take stock of our lives and see where we fall short and seek to accomplish and complete our divine destiny. The whole creation awaits with groaning on our fulfillment.   

PRAYER

Father oftentimes we start so many things without evaluating what you would have us do.  Help us to sit down in your presence so that we can know where you want to lead us and send us.  In Jesus’ name. Amen