Finish Strong

I have felt so heavy-hearted the last few days.  It seems everywhere we turn people who profess to love Christ and profess to have been following Him for a long time are turning away. They are allowing themselves, over time, to make a slow fade into sin and it is truly breaking my heart. Yesterday I could think of little else.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 says, "You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly."

I know He said it would happen, but that doesn't make it any easier.  I know the enemy is always slinking around trying to see how he can get us off track. I can't quite figure out if it's his scheming or if we just get to a certain point in our lives that we let our guard down.  Has walking with Jesus become so mundane and routine that we think we're going thru the motions, but instead we are allowing ourselves to be diluted by the way the world thinks? 

We expect youth or young believers to struggle along and, realistically, we are all going to struggle. We all have to continually work out our own relationship with Jesus. It's crushing, though, to see older believers just seemingly give up and quit struggling…give up and give in to whatever temptation they find themselves up against.

I promise there is no finger pointing going on here. If anything it has made me want to examine myself more and see if there are any areas in which I am blind.  It has made me want to remain more vigilant than ever before because I don't want to walk with Jesus for 30 plus years and then just abandon ship because it's gotten too hard.  Being consistent is hard. Fighting the tide of popular belief is hard. Standing on Jesus and His precepts while others are embracing false doctrines is hard.  We truly don't understand what it means to suffer for our beliefs, but I believe we are in a time where we are about to find out…and it's going to get harder.

A ministry friend and I were talking a few years back about the deep desire we both have to "Finish strong"! We don't want to devote our lives to pointing others to Jesus only to get to the end and start wandering about in the wilderness. The only way that is going to happen, though, is if we continue to drink in Truth, continue to surround ourselves with other believers who aren't willing to compromise and continue to realize the line in following Jesus is one deep and we can't allow ourselves to drift into the line of popular opinion.

Lord, please help me never lose sight of You and the road you have called me to walk. I know the road is narrow and there are going to be points along the way where I will be tempted to branch off and wander, but I beg You to help me stay focused. More than anything I want to stand before You one day and know, while I didn't do it all right, I did struggle well and I did finish strong!!!