Finishing Well

It seemed like a routine trip to the doctor's office. Tim's mom had taken a couple of unexpected spills and the doctor was concerned that she had suffered a very mild stroke. "99% chance, that's what it is," he had said. But now, as she sat with her husband of 30+ years, the doctor's voice lowered to deliver a very different message. "You have malignant inoperable brain tumors." In the quietness that followed those shocking words, she gathered her thoughts, turned to her husband and bravely said, "I guess I'm going to get to go to heaven before you do." Dad just put his head in his hands and sobbed. Her words offered little comfort at the moment, but during the difficult period of treatments and even the fulfillment of her statement six months later, Dad came to more fully appreciate these as words of faith, spoken by a woman who wanted to finish well.

Many people begin their lives well because their families start them on the right track. However, the responsibility of living to please God and finishing well rests squarely on the shoulders of each individual. How many have begun well only to shipwreck on life's unexpected temptations, sidetracks, or trials? The effects of such a tragedy ripple throughout an already weakened church and a watching secular community. In contrast, the life of a faithful, godly Christian who finishes well can encourage others to faith for generations. Who can measure the lasting impact of courageous faith and godly lives in people like Martin Luther, Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, George Mueller or Charles Finney? Or even looking at the lives of dear Christians we have personally known over the years, how many lives have been eternally blessed because of their faithfulness? Our own children still reap the benefits of the faith and prayers of Tim's godly grandmother even though she died before they were born.

Finishing well often has less to do with the external choices that we make than why and how we make them. Why do we watch the things we do? Why do we read the books or listen to the music we do? Do we limit our choices because the kids are around or because we genuinely desire that God would be glorified in our lives? Does the concern for what others will think pilot our decisions more than we would care to admit? Where is our love for God? Far too often it is buried beneath a pile of sinful heart attitudes and selfish motivations. The Bible is clear, sin takes away our heart for God. (Hos. 4:11) And yet loving God, from the heart and through our actions, is the primary goal every Christian should have. Do we honestly want to finish well? If we are going to do so, we must seek the grace to lay aside every area of sin (even sinful motivations), believing that He can enable us as we look to Him.

The challenge of finishing well becomes even more difficult when one is living in the time which the Scriptures call "the last days". Today many Christians believe that things are winding down and that the end times are upon us. But why does that make it more difficult to live for God? Romans 13:11-14 mentions one of the biggest hindrances to glorifying God during this time: a tendency of Christians to be asleep to the dangers at hand, forgetting the importance of finishing well. Instead of Christians walking with God in holiness, the Bible tells us there will be a complacency as never before, coupled with an increasing amount of sin in the church. (Matthew 24:12, 2 Thess. 2:3) What are we to do in such a time as this? The Bible has much to say about this, but we will highlight the most important one. Romans 13:14 tells us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. Along the same lines Rev. 3:20 highlights the same concept. Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me." Often used to call non-Chrisitans to Christ, this precious promise is actually addressing Christians. In spite of the evilness of the times and the dangerous condition of the church, Christ offers to each believer the promise that if we will truly open our hearts and lives to Him, He will fellowship with us throughout our daily lives. This is not a mystical experience promised here, but the living reality of His presence and strengthening in our day to day lives. May God give us grace to truly open our hearts to Him in these difficult days, that we might finish well, by His power and for His glory.