Finish What You Start!

1 Corinthians 15:58

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

Look at these two words:

INITIATIVE               FINITIATIVE

Have you ever heard this statement? “He has initiative.” What is that? It means doing something without having to be prodded to do it.

What is finitiative? Well, it is not really a word. I saw it in a little book that belongs to my mother-in-law had, and it made me think… It reminded me of something my pastor sometimes says- “We need stickability!” (That isn’t a word either, but what he means is that we need the ability to stick with it and not give up).

In my mind, finitiative means something similar, like “displaying the ability to finish the work you start.”

The Lord has a work for us to do. He wants us to have the initiative to start the work, but He wants us to have finitiative, as well. In light of that, let’s look at this Scripture again…

1 Corinthians 15:58

“Therefore, my beloved brethren (he called them brothers because they were fellow Christians- meaning they had started in the work of the Lord), be ye steadfast (stay dedicated), unmovable (don’t move away from the Lord!), always abounding (continually grow and thrive) in the work of the Lord, (he specifically points to the Lord’s work) forasmuch as ye know (we KNOW, so don't let the devil try to tell you otherwise!) that your labor (work) is not in vain (not futile) in the Lord.” (In other words, we have started this work, so stay dedicated to it, don’t move away from the Lord, but let us continually grow and thrive in the Lord’s work until we have completed what we started. Why? Because it will all be worth it when we are finished…Heaven!)

May God give us FINITIATIVE…

-[Charlotte Dixon]