Think Ahead: 7 Decisions You Can Make Today for the God-Honoring Life You Want TomorrowSample

I Will Be a Finisher

You’ve probably contemplated quitting something important. In fact, you may feel like giving up right now.

• You had a dream and pursued your goal with gusto but hit some resistance, and your effort stalled out. You’ve had little to no progress. Frustration has set in. You’re discouraged. You feel like giving up.
• There was a relationship you tried to restore. You reached out to initiate healing, but it didn’t go well. Things are worse today than they were before.
• You may be working to save your marriage, but your spouse isn’t cooperating, and you’re running out of fight.
• You’ve been praying and praying for your child to come back to Jesus, or for healing, or financial provision, or for God to help you overcome an addiction, but your prayers aren’t getting the results you want, and you’re almost out of hope.
• You’ve battled a debilitating depression, and the pain simply won’t subside. You don’t want to give up on life, but you wonder how much longer you’ll have the strength to go on.

I’ve talked to people who want to give up and they’ll say, “Craig, I’m done.” You might feel that way. If so, let me remind you: If you’re not dead, you’re not done. God has more for you.

I understand that you’re discouraged and feel like giving up, but God has more for you to do:

• more love to give
• more people to help
• more hope to share
• more friendships to make

You may feel too tired to get excited about “more.” You might be thinking, More? I’m so tired. I can’t do more.

If that’s true, consider what David Allen says in his book, Getting Things Done: “Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they’ve started.”

Could the issue be not that you have too much to do, but that you’ve not yet done what God’s called you to do?

Do you have some unfinished business?

Please pause to reflect on this question: What has God prompted you to do that you haven’t done yet?

Why does this matter so much?If you have regrets because of things you’ve quit on in the past, or if you’re agonizing right now about giving up on something that really matters, you know why this is a big deal. You don’t want to feel that way anymore.

But it goes even deeper, because this is not just about now—it’s about the rest of your life. What you do now determines who you become. Why? Because every decision you make is a vote on your future.

Today’s decisions are votes on what kind of person you will be tomorrow. Any time you quit, you vote on becoming a person who doesn’t have what it takes and doesn’t finish what you started.

If you’re tempted to quit what God’s called you to start, it may be because you care about something more than you care about God and running the race He’s set before you.

We’re all tempted to put something above and ahead of God and His will for our lives. What is that thing for you? You may want to acknowledge it and declare that it’s not going to stop you anymore.

Every time you’re strong in the Lord and persevere, you cast a vote that you will be a finisher.

We commit to Him, and we don’t quit, because we are finishers. We run our race for God. When we grow weary, we remember who we’re running for and we take the next step. You don’t have to finish the race today. You just need to take one more step.

But what about when you get tired and feel like you can’t take another step? When you’ve given but they didn’t care? When you’ve prayed but with no results? When you’ve loved but been taken advantage of? What do you do when you feel like you can’t run anymore?

That’s when you remember that you’re running with God.

You never run alone. God loves you and will carry you. So, fix your eyes on Jesus. He is a finisher, and so are you.

Before you start something, decide you won’t quit. It’s time to pre-decide today: I will be a finisher.

Are you ready to make that pre-decision?

When you do, you’ll go further, because it turns out this is a key factor—perhaps the key factor—in pleasing God, accomplishing our goals, and achieving success.