God Always Finishes What He Starts

How many times have you started a project? Whether it’s making a special meal, writing a story, or beginning an exercise program– it’s something you’ve started. But how many times have you started something and not finished it?

I know that I have projects I’ve started and never finished. It’s not very satisfying to see something you’ve begun–maybe with lots of vigor and determination– not really end up turning into anything.

Years ago, I started a story that barely went past chapter one. Imagine if my character was a real person. How would she feel? I left her underdeveloped, with no climax in her life, and with unresolved problems. If I were her and my story was never finished, and there was nothing I could do about it, I probably wouldn’t be very happy!

But one massive thing that differentiates me from my poor main character, is the fact that the Author of my story doesn’t stop part way through. God never has a good idea, then changes his mind after He starts doing something in my life.

Philippians 1:6 says, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Not only did Paul say that God would perfect His good works in our lives, but he was confident that God would do just that.

Sometimes it seems as though things start to make a turn for the better, but then all of a sudden, everything plummets downward. We start to see change, but then things revert back to how they used to be. It’s as if good things begin to happen, but our hopes are dashed to pieces when our circumstances take a turn for the worse.

In those situations, it can be so easy to lose hope and feel defeated. We can feel like maybe God didn’t think we were worth the time or effort, and stopped part way through. Like maybe God just didn’t care.

But here is something I learned recently, something that shook me and changed my perspective on a major scale: God works even when we don’t see it.

I feel like that is something that is commonly said, a popular saying, although recently I’ve been learning that it means a lot more than what someone may think.

Habakkuk 2:3-4 says, “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay. Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith.”

Here’s what I see in the first verse: there is an appointed time set for the vision, and it hurries toward the goal and will not fail. Verse four then says that “the righteous will live by his faith.”

You see, we need faith to believe that what God says will happen actually will happen, even when we don’t see it. God lives in the spiritual realm, and because of that, a lot of times we don’t see what He’s doing until it has directly influenced our lives.

But we don’t need to fear: for when God says something will happen, we can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it will– because we serve a God who keeps His Word, and always finishes what he starts!