Finish Your Race

Finishing is not for the faint of heart. It is for the people who do not stay down when they are knocked down. It's for the person who is different. The one who does not follow the crowd. The individual who does not get distracted easily is a finisher. Studying the Word of God and using it in your everyday life will transform you into one of life's great finishers.

God is the ultimate finisher. When he made himself revealed to us as Jesus Christ, he took on the greatest task a human can undertake by dying on the cross for our sins, defeating death, and being raised from the dead. The strength to finish does not get any bigger than that. Why not learn from the one who has the greatest accomplishment in finishing? Jesus Christ.

Being known as a 'finisher' is a unique commodity. Not many people can call themselves by this moniker. You can only receive this label if you have finished multiple tasks throughout your life, easy and hard -- defeating the compelling urge to quit over and over again. When you begin a task, the main thing you must understand in your task or mission is that the enemy does not want you to finish regardless of the obligation. He wants you to have little to no accomplishments of finishing in your life to reflect upon. I look at it as having no coins stored away in your accomplishment bucket. Satan knows this will make it easier for him to defeat you when times get tough, because your accomplishment bucket is empty or deficient of the currency to finish your task. The more you finish things, the more confidence you will have. The more confidence you have, the more your accomplishment bucket will be filled with the necessary currency to get you through. If you are not a finisher and move-on from projects or tasks you start easily, this means your accomplishment bucket is empty and you do not have enough currency, or 'finsihes' to sustain you through tough times. This is where most people struggle in life.

Let's set our focus on the little things first. Like cleaning your home daily. Do you do this? How about vacuuming or mopping your floors? Do you do that regularly? Does your kitchen sink have dishes in it for days without being cleaned out? What about your clothes? Are they spread all over your bedroom to be attended to and put in a proper place when you feel like it? All of this has to do with the little things. If you want to be known as a finisher, you must be good at finishing the little things. Starting where you live is a great way to create a foundation in your life of finishing. You may ask, what do these tasks at home have to do with finishing my race? I am glad you asked. Constantly finishing tasks at home will create a chord of commitment and consistency inside of you that will be transferable into having the will and fortitude to press through larger and more grueling assignments or undertakings. If you are always finishing small or medium tasks, your brain will not know the difference when a large task arrives, it will only know that it is a finisher. Now, it will be driven to do whatever it takes to continue to finish -- because finishing is all it knows. You want to get your brain to only know specific things, so it can be drawn to do that. Whatever you are used to, that is what you will bring to your life. Why not get used to finishing? You can start by finishing the small tasks in your home to begin filling up your accomplishment bucket with currency.

In the Bible it says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (The King James Study Bible, Philippians 4:13). It is important to know, you can only do all things -- through Christ who strengthens you, when you involve Christ in your daily decisions and you are not afraid to work. Christ cannot strengthen you if you are not willing to work.  Jesus strengthens the person who has a willing-heart. He strengthened the disciples because they were all-in with Him and committed fully to the journey. You must decide in your mind that you are willing-hearted and all-in with Jesus if you want to separate yourself from people who are comfortable with quitting, and 'Finish Your Race.' There are many people in the Bible who finished their race, and at the end -- God rewarded them. Your job is to finish your race in Christ -- not follow the crowd. Not be like everyone else. That is not your race. Finishing your race takes taking a stand. It takes staying home sometimes and studying the word of God or working on your dream when you know everyone is out at the biggest party of the year. It takes saying no to rekindle a past relationship when you are lonely. You cannot finish your race if you are not focused. If you are easily distracted you will not be known as a finisher.

If you want to be labeled as a finisher, it takes a lot of practice and patience. You must be in-it to win-it. You must put all your faith in God and know He is the one that will get you through. The book of Job is a tremendous book about finishing. In this book God allowed Satan to test Job by wiping out all of his wealth, cattle, land, children, and goods. He also allowed Satan to place boils all over his body. Satan believed that Job would curse God, but God knew his child would not do so. During the trial and hardship Job went through, he hated his life and wished he had never been born because all he had worked for was wiped out in a matter of days. During this process Job received bad info from his friends and his wife told him to curse God, but he had a heart for God. Job was being tempted mightily in his test from the Lord.  In devastation that Job encountered, many people would have easily cursed the Lord, but Job kept his mouth closed in that regard. Job fought his temptations with glorifying the Lord and finding a place of refuge through an understanding that God is in charge. In the process Job repented for the things he did wrong and passed his test with a new level of humility. God blessed Job with ten beautiful children (seven sons and three daughters), much more land and cattle than he had before, and the Bible says, "Job died, being old and full of days." (The King James Study Bible, 42.17). God is a rewarder for those who lean on him for strength to finish.

One of the main keys to finishing is to keep going. If you can learn how to keep going using the word of God, staying focused, quoting scriptures in your trials, praising the Lord, and allowing what the Bible says to guide you -- you will eventually place yourself in a selective group.