Thursday, May 26, 2022
Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2
Finished and Completed
For some people, finishing something is hard. Finishing a project, an assignment, or some daunting task we don’t want to do. We may start well, and with good intentions, but that is where is ends. We have good intentions, but they will not get the job done by themselves.
We do the same thing in our walk with Jesus. We start a Bible study but do not finish. We start a ministry but never follow through. As Pastor Sam pointed out Sunday, there are many things that causes Christians to fizzle out.
- Time – We say we don’t have time for serving, or we don’t have time for a quiet time, but the real heart of the matter is that we have not made those things a priority in our lives. In different seasons we may not be able to serve, and that is understandable. But in every season of our lives, we need to make spending time with the Lord a top priority. If you have small children, it may be 10 minutes one day and 30 minutes the next. But we make time for what we place value on in our lives. Make it a priority to give Him some time every day.
- We have been hurt – We have been hurt so we stay away from church. It is hard to go back to the places we were hurt, but our hurt feelings should not be more important than being in church and worshipping God. People should not be able to hurt our feelings enough to turn us away from God, because our allegiance is to Him, not them. That does not make it okay for us to hurt one another, but it is also not okay to make hurt feelings a reason to stop going to church and serving the Lord.
- We are not getting fed/not connected – Are you trying to get connected? Are you opening up your heart and mind so you can be fed? Or are you hung up on the choice of the songs for Sunday morning, or the lesson in Bible Study that you are not interested in? Is God trying to teach you something that you are not hearing? Step out of your comfort zone and make some new friends. Find a Bible study that looks interesting to you. We cannot be fed unless we open ourselves up to what God is telling us.
We can make a lot of excuses to not follow through on commitments we make. What if Jesus had decided that He did not want to finish His work here on earth? Where would we be if He had decided that He didn’t want to shed His blood for us after all? What if He had backed out at the last minute?
We would be lost with no hope of salvation and eternal life. But thank God Jesus did finish what He came to do. He endured the pain of the cross, while focusing on the future and a promise for all of salvation and eternal life.
“It is finished” - John 19:30
Jesus completed the work of salvation and eternal life of the cross. Three important things were finished on the cross:
- Finished and completed were the sufferings of Christ – He would never experience pain at the hand of wicked men, and He would never again have to bear the sins of the world.
- Finished was Satan's stronghold on humanity – Jesus destroyed the power of death over all of humanity.
- Finished was the atonement for salvation – On the cross, Jesus took on our sin and exchanged them for life – eternal life in Him.
God had this plan for you and me and Jesus completed it through His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave. I am so thankful that Jesus finished and completed His work here on earth for you and me.
