Harvest Daily Devotional 11/17/03

Harvest Daily Devotional 
by Pastor Greg Laurie

November 17, 2003

Finishing What We Start

“You ran well.  Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” (Galatians 5:7)

Imagine, for a moment, that we are competing in a race.  When the starter pistol is fired, we take off, and I leave you in my dust.  I’m running really well.  Let’s say we are going for 10 laps, and we are coming to the last one.  I say to myself, “I am creaming the competition.  I am going to go get a Krispy Kreme doughnut now.”  So I wander off the track.  Let’s say that you cross the finish line 10 minutes later.  It is clear that I beat you, but if I didn’t do the 10th lap and cross the finish line, then I have lost the race.  It doesn’t matter if I led for nine out of 10 laps.  I had to finish the race I began.

In the same way, there are people who started off with a great burst of energy as they followed the Lord.  Maybe you were one of those people.  Maybe you came to Christ during the days of the Jesus Movement.  Or perhaps you came more recently.  That is great.  But listen: That was then, and this is now.  How you were running a year ago, or even a month ago, is no longer significant.  But how you are running right now is.  Are you keeping up the pace?  Are you going to make it across the finishing line?  You can make it if you want to.

There will be times as you live the Christian life when it will be hard.  You will have to hold on to God’s Word and the promise that He will complete the work He has begun in your life (Philippians 1:6).  But will you make the effort to cross the finish line?

Copyright © 2003 by Harvest Ministries.  All rights reserved.  Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version, copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.  All rights reserved.