How You Finish

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Each year, every team in the National Football League starts out in a tie for first place. Every single franchise, on opening day, can say, “So far so good. We’re undefeated!”. But being in first place week-one and being in first place week-twelve are very different things. In football, as in life, how you finish is much more important than how you started.

Here is someone who understood what I’m talking about; the Apostle Paul, near the end of his life, in
2 Tim 4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

Paul, like many of us, had a great start; a powerful testimony of conversion, a strong call of God, and a passion to serve the Master. The apostle, like so many believers, took off like rocket in his pursuit of the things of God. But while a strong beginning is commendable, what is far more significant and noteworthy is that Paul, at the end of his life, many years later, could still say, “I have finished my race, I have kept the faith”. Paul didn’t just start well – he finished well. Let’s you and I do the same.

Press on. Stay busy. Don’t give up. Serve the King for He is worthy. Don’t let discouragement or past failures slow you down. Move forward and don’t quit. You, like every NFL team, may have had a great beginning, but how you finish is much more important than how you started. So, finish well.