Aim To Finish

Acts 20:22-24 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

How important is it for us to finish the race? Paul knew that he would have struggles and hardships but he was willing to move on. He knew his life was nothing unless he finished the tasks God assigned him to do. When we realize there are struggles we need to press on. When we face challenges that seem unbearable, we need to press on. When we lose focus and get sidetracked, we need to press on.

When we get sidetracked or give up we are choosing to put things or people before God. We are telling God to hang on while we wait to do this or that and we will get back on Him later. Our excuses mean nothing. Whatever the reason, it's only an excuse to keep from doing for God.

We seem to find time and money to do the things we want. But are they the things God wants? What makes us think it is ok to do what we want? We couldn't as children because our parents had to guide us to keep us safe and to teach us. Aren't we still God's children? Isn’t God here to guide us and keep us safe and on track for Him? To think that we can do what we want is like being a teenager and thinking we know more than our parents do.

Gods plans for us don't change so what makes us think we can change His plans? We may stop doing or searching for our purpose due to fear of change, fear of losing something we are trying to hold on to or fear of failing. However, God can help us in all these areas. He can remove our fears and move us to a higher ground where we can look back and see that the fears we had weren’t even real.

If we think that what we do daily is more important than what God wants us to do, we are deciding to put Him after other things. We are deciding that we know what is better for us and others tha
He does. We are deciding to go our own way and we use whatever excuse we can to make it okay in our minds but God knows our hearts. Our purpose in earth is still needed. God created each of us for His own reasons. When we don't seek out His purpose for us, we are disobeying Him.

We need to understand that God loves us and wants us to be successful but we need to find out what He wants us to do. That isn't always easy; however, the results will be ete
al if we will only stop putting off the hard things and just do them. If we don’t know what our purpose is yet or if we know and we are having trouble with our next step, God can help us with our next step whether big or small. We need to ask God to help us realize that we compelled by the Spirit so we can press on.

Our task is to testify the good news of God. When we aren’t doing that, we aren’t on task. When we put it off, we are disobeying God. When we do other things first, we are creating idols. It is a fact out of the Bible what we are put here to do on earth. God wants us to be a part of Him and we can’t when are trying to be a part of something else as well. We need to aim to finish the race by staying on task. When we aren’t working toward finishing the race, we aren’t working for God. When we aren’t working for God, we aren’t making a difference.