“If only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me” (Acts 20:24).
Have you ever started a long and complicated task and, when you were only halfway done, you wanted to stop?
Have you ever gotten up in the morning with lots of energy and suddenly decided to take everything out of the kitchen and wash all the shelves? It is easy to take everything out and place it on the floor. Then, you start washing. You have to carry the water. You start getting hot, so you say to yourself, “I will finish this later.” You look around, but there is no place to sit and rest. Suddenly, you realize that you have made too much of a mess to stop.
Our spiritual journey can be like that. Things get difficult and we want to quit in the middle. When we are young and idealistic, it is easy to think of spending our lives serving the Lord. But then we suffer disappointment and heartaches. We want to quit, to quietly leave difficulty behind and continue life where things would be easier.
However, backing out now would cause too much of a mess; too many people would be hurt.
Everybody’s faith walk gets hard sometimes. Each of us has been tempted to quit. We know that we cannot, because Jesus is depending on us. He has prepared a special place for us in His Father’s house. He is coming to take us home with Him. We cannot quit now or we would miss it all.
Each of us is entrusted with important tasks. Let us be careful to finish them.
Kimberly Snider is a missionary to the Philippines.
From “Moments for Moms,” a free email subscription.
Copyright (c) 2004 Women’s Ministries of the Assemblies of God.
http://www.ag.org/womensministries