Begin With The End In Mind

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/23/in-the-end

It is every believer’s aspiration to be able to sincerely and genuinely say at the end that we have fought the good fight, we have finished the race and have kept the faith. We will know ourselves where we stand with God as over the years we would have communicated and interacted with the Lord and thus will by then be able to feel His heartbeat. We would have developed a relationship with God that is both unique to us and God with our own nuances. A relationship that is intimate and close. We understand and know Him as He knows us inside out. We would have been able to put our trust fully in God, totally reliant on His prompting for the major decisions in our lives, even minor ones. We would have been always guided by the Holy Spirit on who to reach out to, who to speak about the goodness of God. We would have had a deep sense of knowledge and appreciation that we are all wonderfully and fearfully made and we know deep in us that God will complete His good work in us as we place our yoke on Jesus Christ our Lord and draw upon Him as our bread of life and the river of everlasting waters that we will never go hungry and thirsty again.

Stephen Covey’s 2nd habit of his 7 habits of highly effective people teaches us to begin with the end in mind. In whatever we do, we imagine and envision what the end result will be as we start our work or project. In terms of life, we want to always journey with the end in mind – what will our eulogies be like? What will be written on our tombstone? Will it be 2 Timothy 4:7, the literal last written words of Paul?

Unlike how the world perceives things and evaluate success, our race in God is always something between us and God. The fight is always one with spiritual forces trying to distract and draw us away from God. The race is one where we are racing in our own lane to our own finish line. The treasures in heaven we are storing are all our own. The plans and purposes God has for us are unique to us the same way we are uniquely made. There is no question of looking at what he did for the Lord! The many churches he planted, the many lives he touched, the many powerful messages he preached or the many people healed through him. Our fight is our own and our race is our own to complete. The only question is, at the end, have we kept the faith? Have we remained true and faithful to God and His cause for us? Only we alone can answer that question on that day, not our parents, not our pastor or our cell group leader. Jesus will be our advocate. But if we had been close to Jesus all these years, will He even need to ask us the question? Will He not straight away welcome us with open arms and say well done, my good and faithful servant, come now into your rest?

Begin with the end in mind, and we will be able to plan our lives accordingly – making the right choices, putting God first in all things, making God’s plans and purposes for us our fundamental goals in life. Cast our eyes on things eternal even as we carve a slice of this world for ourselves. Begin with the end in mind!