Finish Strong

We’ve just come out of Easter weekend celebrating our resurrected King. Things in the world have been a bit messy. We have a lot of young people dying, we have had a global pandemic, economic distress and wars. We don’t need to panic. We don’t need to be afraid because we have a resurrected King who sits on the throne of our lives. Our lives belong to Jesus meaning the devil cannot kill us unless we give him permission. This is a time to be surrendered and submitted to the Kingship and Lordship of Jesus, so our lives are not cut short but we get to accomplish all that God has for us to accomplish in the Earth.

One day we are all going to stand face to face with Jesus and give an account for our lives. Romans 14:12 says, “Therefore, each one must answer for himself and give a personal account of his own life before God.” Imagine that, having to give an account of how you spent your life on Earth to God. I think in that moment one of the questions we are going to be faced with is, “Did I do all I was meant to do in the Earth?” Or phrased differently, “Did I fulfill my purpose in the Earth? Did I finish what God gave me to do?”

In that day, we can’t plead ignorance because we have a Bible that tells us that God has a plan for our lives, Jeremiah 29:11. It tells us God has work for us to do, that we have a destiny to fulfill. Ephesians 1:1 says “Through our union with Christ we too have been claimed by God as his own inheritance.  Before we were even born, he gave us our destiny; that we would fulfill the plan of God who always accomplishes every purpose and plan in his heart.”

We are going to need to give an answer as to whether we fulfilled our destiny or not. We know for sure that Jesus finished what He was sent to the Earth to accomplish. He is who we look to if we want to know how to live our lives. Jesus lived His life on purpose and focused on His mission. The Bible likens our lives to running a race. Not a sprint, unfortunately, it is a marathon. We can start strong and excited, but life happens in the middle. Question is how are we going to finish? Are we going to finish strong? Finishing strong doesn’t just happen. It is intentional.

Looking at Jesus, He was born in a manger. He was raised by Mary and her carpenter husband Joseph. Two ordinary people. We don’t know much about them except that they loved God and worshipped Him and were obedient to Him. Jesus started as a baby, went on to be a toddler, teenager and young man in His 20’s. We don’t hear much about those years, but we can assume that Jesus spent those years serving in the unseen and being obedient to Father God.

Bible tells us He knew no sin, 2 Corinthians 5:21. That means He never sinned. Him and sin were never acquainted. That is not something that happens by coincidence. It didn’t just happen. He wasn’t winging it and hoping for the best. It takes conscious effort to live that way. Meaning Jesus was always aware of His purpose and His reason for being on the Earth. He lived His life looking at accomplishing all that God had set for Him to accomplish.

Are we living our lives God focused and determined to accomplish God’s plans for us in the Earth? Are we taking the necessary steps to find out what it is that God has us in the Earth to do?

I’ll let you have a think about that and pray about that. We’ll continue this next week.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.