Get Up and Finish Your Course

Yes, times are hard and difficult, and even for some, unbearable. So what are you going to do, are you going to just sit there and complain? Are you going to put your head in your hands and cry, hoping that God does something to help you? Or, are you going to deal with the situation of this life with courage? When these times of despair come upon you, the first thing to do is to remember his word, and to stand on his word, considering that if he does nothing else for you, it’s just possible that he has done enough.

Times like these offer a great opportunity for self-evaluation. Why is all this hell in your life, and what responsibility do you have in all of this anguish? Why would God put on you more than you can bear, or is all of this for the trying of your faith? This chaos, this narrow road of what seems to be the road to failure, just might be the necessary road leading you to greater faith.

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17

When you intentionally focus on the word of God, you are building your faith. You are breaking the bondage to the lies from the enemy, and reminding yourself over and over, of the truth of who God says you are. 

In this post, it is my sincere prayer that you would declare His words over your life, and tune out the lies that the enemy has declared over your life. That you would truly step into your identity, and your authority, as a treasured son or daughter, and discover who God says you are.

When you saturate your spirit and mind with God’s Word, his affirmation and his promises will transform the atmosphere in your home, your relationships, and even in your thinking.

“And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Ephesians 3:19

So let’s pray together:

Father, we love you so much. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your incredible word spoken over us that transforms our lives from the inside, out. Your word is living, breathing, active. It’s living water and daily bread for my soul.

Father, things for us have been so difficult. We’ve tried for over four hundred years to fit into a society that never wanted us to be anything but slaves, or at the very least, not equal to themselves. We have struggled as people whose identity, culture, and names have been stolen. What we know about our history has been written in history books by our oppressors.

This systematic conditioning of oppression has caused many of your chosen people to lose their faith and hope in you. 

So Father I pray for those who are at the end of their rope. I pray that you would heal their broken hearts, and minds, and restore their hope in your plan for their lives. Help them to see themselves through your eyes, through who you say they are. We ask that you would uproot the lies and that you would speak a greater word over them. That not one word of the enemy spoken over them would define who they are. And that from this very moment they would begin to understand that they are the apple of your eye, and none can be compared to them. 

So Father we declare that your original purpose for our lives would be transplanted into our minds, hearts, and souls, causing us to truly walk as your sons and daughters. Therefore, we present ourselves to you afresh, that you may mold and shape us into the image of your Son by the renewing of our minds. Amen.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11

Now that we have prayed, let us build our defense system with common-sense strategies that will equip us to be successful in the days ahead.

First, we need to know how to think correctly. The largest gap between successful and unsuccessful people in life is the thinking gap. I’m not talking about intelligence or your IQ, but how you think.

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 14:12

Wise thinking leads to right living, and unwise thinking leads to wrong living. If you want to have a fulfilled life, you must fill your mind with correct thinking. We spend to much time focusing on tomorrow while today slips by. We need to focus on today; realizing that tomorrow is not promised.

What we must realize is that today matters. If we do nothing with today, we will lose an opportunity that we will never have again. We overestimate what we can do tomorrow, we exaggerate what we did yesterday, and we underestimate what we can do right now. The only time you and I have is now. The main problem with most of us is that we spend to much time talking. Stop talking about it. Be about it. So we should wake every morning with this question; what am I doing with right now? When you question the moment, you maximize the moment. It is in today, that you make your tomorrow a success.

Motivation, (just do it). Motivation is not the cause of action; it is the byproduct of action. If I think motivation is the cause of my action, then I will always wait to be motivated to do something. If I realize that it is the byproduct of my action, then I will do something, and motivation will come.

”Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” Joshua 1:9

Nothing great comes to you until you commit yourself. Nothing happens if you’re not sure you really want it, or just thinking about it. So don’t cheat yourself of the potential that’s on the other side of commitment. Stay with it long enough to find out if there’s any fruit in it. You can do goal setting with a pencil, but you have to do goal-getting with your legs. You have to take action.

It is the action that separates us. One of the greatest gaps (part of the thinking gap) in this world is the gap between knowing and doing. Knowing is goal setting, doing is achieving; goal getting.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58

It is said by the professional that it takes thirty days to form a habit. Now habits can be good or bad. So over time, you can develop habits that can help or hurt you. People that grow develop habits that help them. The great value of a good habit is that you don’t have to think about it. Once you began to practice something good for you, over time it becomes habitual. We should practice good habits long enough until it becomes yours. And once it’s yours, it becomes automatic. Every day you will do what you should do.

Everything worthwhile is up to you. There is no such thing as accidental achievements. No one reaches the top of the mountain and has no idea how they got there. The reason they know how they got there is that they had to take every step up the mountain. Nobody carried them, there was no elevator, no shortcuts. It was, and is, all effort to get to the top.

What I need you to understand is that aspiration is nothing, without perspiration. To aspire to be great without the hard work to achieve is like watching television imagining you’re the star, and when the movie is over reality hits you like a truck.

I will conclude with this; the easy way is the greatest threat to progress. If there’s no pain (effort) that accompanies your success than there is no testimony to share with others, and no glory to give to the Father, and even worst, no value in living. Without a cross, there will be no crown. So I trust today that you would roll up your sleeves, and just do it. Get up and finish your course.

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:7-8

 “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:13