The Key to Finishing Well

No one can deny that Solomon struck gold when he asked God for wisdom.  I Kings 3:5-15 tells the story of Solomon starting out extremely well; God not only gave him wisdom, but riches and honor.  What a great start to his reign!  God even said if he kept the ways of his father, King David, he would get a long life, too!

Well... then chapter eleven happened.  In I Kings 11:1-6 King Solomon starts doing the big no-no's: multiple wives!  Even worse, they influenced him for the worst (I Kings 11:7-8).  Notice verses 9-11:

⁹And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice,

 ¹⁰And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the LORD commanded.

 ¹¹Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.

I'm no genius, but it looks to me like God was no longer impressed by Solomon's glorious beginning.  But he started out so well!  He asked God for wisdom when he could've asked for anything!  He was David's son and was surely destined for success.  He had received divine favor from God and a promising future in His service.

We are quick to scold King Solomon, yet when was the last time we started on a project but failed miserably?  Being a junior in college, I'm beginning to see why so many drop out, get dismissed, give up, don't come back, or play around with trouble one too many times.  College is not for the faint at heart!  Looking through my first yearbook, I can point to almost half of my freshman class and say, "They started out strong, but didn't even finish."

If you're up for a challenge, live a life of obedience to God.  I'm not even going to lie -- it is hard.  However, will that excuse really work when we stand before Christ after we die?  What do you think Solomon had to say when he met his Maker?  "Lord, I'm really sorry, but it was too hard.  I couldn't resist all those pretty Egyptians and Ammonites."  Do you think God told him, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant"?

Making sure we finish well starts with decisions we make today.  Solomon could've kept going strong by saying "no" to the first foreign woman who batted her eyes at him.  Every wrong decision we make takes us one step further away from God's will, until we're so far off the path we don't even know how we got there.  React to each unwise choice like Solomon should have reacted to each woman of the Moabites, Ammonites, and Hittites.

The old Solomon was never the same spiritually vibrant man he once was, and in his own words, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2).  Every choice you make today affects your future.  In college, you cannot expect to get an A in a class if you never study for the tests.  In a car race, you cannot expect to finish if you never make pit stops.  If life, you cannot expect a "Well done" if you cut corners, mess with trouble, or don't finish what you start.

The key to finishing well is doing well today.  If we resolve to do that every day, we will live our whole lives in obedience to God's will.  "Waste not time; for time is the stuff that life is made of" (Benjamin Franklin).  Yes, daily dying to self can be hard, but it's so much easier than wasting many precious years and trying to pick up the pieces.  Find your strength in the Lord, and you will never lack the strength to finish well!

Don't Trust in Horses and Chariots

According to Isaiah, not only is it a good idea to trust God, but it's the only way to go!  And you can trust God's prophets, because if anything they said wasn't true, they had to be put to death.  So you can pretty much count on this one: God is the One who should be trusted.

Once you're neck deep in a mess that's beyond your control, trusting Him is easier said than done.  We tend to rely on ourselves, because we figure we can handle it.  The fact is, we can't handle it and we know very little about ourselves if we believe we can.  Sometimes we cling to parents, peers or our pastor for strength, but these people cannot be spiritual enough to face our trials for us.  Each of us must learn to lean on God for ourselves.  Finally, there are those who resort to wordly things for comfort.  Again, wrong choice!  

1	Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!
2	Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity.
3	Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.  -Isaiah 31:1-3

The worst thing you can do is "go back to Egypt" when the going gets rough.  Many of us have lived a wordly lifestyle of some degree before salvation, so returning to its ease and comfort seems like the natural thing to do.  Before Jesus rose again, the disciples were so distraught over His death that they went back to their old profession: fishing.  It's easy to slide into the old habit of "trusting in chariots" because they're familiar and visible; who wants to put their trust in Someone you can't even see?

The truth is, all the "horses and chariots" Egypt can give you aren't really that strong.  In the end, he that helpeth (the world) and the holpen (you) will fall.  Isaiah says, Woe to them that look not unto God, neither seek the Lord!  In the words of a great hymn, "I must tell Jesus; Jesus can help me, Jesus alone" (I Must Tell Jesus).  Life is not for the faint at heart.  Don't trust in whatever you left in Egypt; they're no match for God.  Trust in the One that wiped out the entire Egyptian army at the Red Sea Crossing; He will bring you safely through!

Picture: bible-history.com

Faithful Is He

Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

I Thessalonians 5:24

This verse is one in a long list of short, seemingly random thoughts Paul spouts off at the very end of his first letter to Thessalonica.  It's right there with the really easy memory verses like "Pray without ceasing" and "Rejoice evermore."  Each verse is so short, and yet, bursting at the seams with truth.  However, what threw me for a loop was the end of verse 24, "who also will do it."  This puzzled me; what exactly is "it"?

These short passages are nice because you can take them almost literally a word at a time and strike with gold with every swing.  "Faithful is He that calleth you" is pretty straightforward.  God has a specific plan for each of us to accomplish in this life, and He is faithful!  Even when we stray from the path, he never gives up on us.  No matter how rough the path may seem, He will never forsake us.

"Who also..."  God didn't just set your life in motion to sit back and watch it spin.  He had your best interest in mind when he called you and He still has your best interest in mind.  These two words illustrate how personal God is.

"...will do it."   What, did you expect to reach your life's goals on your own strength?  If you've ever tried to do anything in life without God's guiding hand, you already know that your chances of success are slim to none!  God is faithful, and has a calling just for you, but only through His strength can you reach it.

Wow, the second half of this verse really puts it all in perspective.  So often we major on the "I can do all things!" but forget that it's only "through Christ which strengtheneth me."  If God brought you to where you are today (which He obviously did!), just trust Him to take care of things.  The "it" in this verse is everything!  If your calling, as of now, is surviving high school and living at home, God will take care of which college you should go to and finding the time to do projects.  If you're in the will of God at college or beyond, trust Him to handle the next bill payment and how much it'll cost to fix the weird sound the car is making.

It only makes sense to trust in Him because He's the only one who can really handle it anyway.  We can control very little of what takes place in our lives, but if God brings us to it, He will bring us through it.  All we have to do is give it over to Him in prayer, leave it there in His hands, and expect that He "also will do it."