Finish What You Start!!!
How many times have you been so excited about something new only to kick it to the curb in a few months, weeks, days? This can be with anything in life really. How bout the new kid in the neighborhood. You may lavish all of this attention on them for a while and then the newness of the friendship wears off and then you quit hanging out as much. What about the flirty, dating thing with a boy or girl finally turning into a relationship when he finally asks you out. Wow, those first few months of dating are so incredible until you find out what the person is really like and then the warm fuzzy buzz wears off and the dating thing ends after 6 weeks/6months. What about the new leaf in life you turned over and you swore you were going to keep your room clean until you realize how much hard work it is to keep up with it on a regular basis and you realize there is less effort in keeping it a mess. The list can go on and on, new school year promises, January 1st Resolutions, diets, coming back from an awesome summer camp or church retreat.
We have all been there because we are people who love fresh starts. We like the adventure of the unknown. But after a while, we realize the work that goes into maintaining what ever it is that is new in our lives and the freshness of it fades. Many of us are like cannonballs. When we are first shot out of the cannon we are on fire, traveling at a fast pace and then as the distance continues, the heat wears off and the momentuem slows and if we don't hit our directed mark soon, we fall flat out of the sky and make a big THUD!!!
If you are like me, you take on many new projects but fail to see about 90% of them to the end. I have a tendency to get bored quick or swept up in the next new project when it comes along. I may eventually get back to a few of the past projects I had once started, depending on the importance of them.
As I was reading through the Bible tonight, I came across a verse that challenges us all in this area tonight. 2 Corinthians 8 :11 says this, "Now finish the work so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it." Tell me the Bible doesn't relate to our lifestyles on a daily basis? It is so obvious.
That is exactly what many of us need to do in life. Our enthusiasm needs to be matched in the ongoing part of the project as the eagerness was to begin it. Only then will we see beneficial outcomes. Have you ever started a small group study or a devotional book about a certain subject. It is awesome at first but after time wears on, our time and loyalties start going to different things and before you know it, we don't finish. We either drop out, come sporadically or just put the book down. 7 months later, we may pick the book back up or once a month come by the small group but the effect is gone. The intended outcome won't be the same, even if you do finish it, because you have lost the eagerness that you started with.
Kids coming home from retreats tend to fall into this category the most. They may have seen God or experienced Him in a new way on a weekend get away. They really got into the worship, focused on the bonding of new friends, they may have gotten "Right" with God in a few areas in life and are eager to get home and live thier new found lives and commitments but then reality sinks in. The mundaine life creeps back in and all of a sudden all of those promises and commitments are gone. 4 months later you find yourself back in the same place or even a worse place than you were before the retreat.
My friends, we aren't meant to live up and down lives with God. It is more about a consistant life. We shouldn't just jump on everything new that comes along. We have to live a consistant life in order to get any intended outcomes from the commitments we make. We can always hope and wish for that next retreat to come around but if that is what you are waiting on, the chances are very certain that you will be in a low place about 2 weeks after the retreat so, in essence, did the retreat really work?
God is challenging us all tonight to live a more constatnt life. Making sure that we follow through on the commitments and life changes we say we will. He has shown us the areas in our lives that need changing for a purpose, to fix it. But we tend to fall away when we don't see immediate results or if we see that the work load is too much and we have to give up somethings in life we may enjoy. We fall away if it starts interfering with our regular daily lives and our friendships. Basically, what happens is this. God was important enough at some moment to get our attention because we listened but God isn't important enough in our lives to maintain what needs to be done in order to see a desired outcome. We basically ride with God for a little bit and then try to ditch him at some street corner, hoping he won't notice that we have left Him behind and we have moved on.
Where is it tonight that you need to pick God back up in your life? What situation in your life needs God's assistance right now? Where was it that you dropped Him off and why did ya do it? My friends, it's no wonder that our lives are in a cycle of constant mess up's. No wonder our walls keep crumbling down. You can't half build a house and move into it. It has to be completed. What area in your life needs completion tonight?
We have all been there because we are people who love fresh starts. We like the adventure of the unknown. But after a while, we realize the work that goes into maintaining what ever it is that is new in our lives and the freshness of it fades. Many of us are like cannonballs. When we are first shot out of the cannon we are on fire, traveling at a fast pace and then as the distance continues, the heat wears off and the momentuem slows and if we don't hit our directed mark soon, we fall flat out of the sky and make a big THUD!!!
If you are like me, you take on many new projects but fail to see about 90% of them to the end. I have a tendency to get bored quick or swept up in the next new project when it comes along. I may eventually get back to a few of the past projects I had once started, depending on the importance of them.
As I was reading through the Bible tonight, I came across a verse that challenges us all in this area tonight. 2 Corinthians 8 :11 says this, "Now finish the work so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it." Tell me the Bible doesn't relate to our lifestyles on a daily basis? It is so obvious.
That is exactly what many of us need to do in life. Our enthusiasm needs to be matched in the ongoing part of the project as the eagerness was to begin it. Only then will we see beneficial outcomes. Have you ever started a small group study or a devotional book about a certain subject. It is awesome at first but after time wears on, our time and loyalties start going to different things and before you know it, we don't finish. We either drop out, come sporadically or just put the book down. 7 months later, we may pick the book back up or once a month come by the small group but the effect is gone. The intended outcome won't be the same, even if you do finish it, because you have lost the eagerness that you started with.
Kids coming home from retreats tend to fall into this category the most. They may have seen God or experienced Him in a new way on a weekend get away. They really got into the worship, focused on the bonding of new friends, they may have gotten "Right" with God in a few areas in life and are eager to get home and live thier new found lives and commitments but then reality sinks in. The mundaine life creeps back in and all of a sudden all of those promises and commitments are gone. 4 months later you find yourself back in the same place or even a worse place than you were before the retreat.
My friends, we aren't meant to live up and down lives with God. It is more about a consistant life. We shouldn't just jump on everything new that comes along. We have to live a consistant life in order to get any intended outcomes from the commitments we make. We can always hope and wish for that next retreat to come around but if that is what you are waiting on, the chances are very certain that you will be in a low place about 2 weeks after the retreat so, in essence, did the retreat really work?
God is challenging us all tonight to live a more constatnt life. Making sure that we follow through on the commitments and life changes we say we will. He has shown us the areas in our lives that need changing for a purpose, to fix it. But we tend to fall away when we don't see immediate results or if we see that the work load is too much and we have to give up somethings in life we may enjoy. We fall away if it starts interfering with our regular daily lives and our friendships. Basically, what happens is this. God was important enough at some moment to get our attention because we listened but God isn't important enough in our lives to maintain what needs to be done in order to see a desired outcome. We basically ride with God for a little bit and then try to ditch him at some street corner, hoping he won't notice that we have left Him behind and we have moved on.
Where is it tonight that you need to pick God back up in your life? What situation in your life needs God's assistance right now? Where was it that you dropped Him off and why did ya do it? My friends, it's no wonder that our lives are in a cycle of constant mess up's. No wonder our walls keep crumbling down. You can't half build a house and move into it. It has to be completed. What area in your life needs completion tonight?