2 Kings 13

And he said, "Open the east window"; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, "Shoot"; and he shot. And he said, "The arrow of the LORD's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them." Then he said, "Take the arrows"; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground"; so he struck three times, and stopped. And the man of God was angry with him, and said, "You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times."

(2Ki 13:17-19)

Persistence. Stick-to-it-ive-ness. FAITHFULNESS. These are attributes that the scriptures tell us should mark the lives of all true believers. The king of Israel is obeying the commands of Elisha, but he only goes part way. “Hit the ground with those arrows” he says, “hit the ground just like you will strike Syria until they are DESTROYED”. The king hits the ground once, twice, three times… but then he stops. Elisha gets angry and says to him, “why did you stop?! You should have hit the ground twice as many times!”

This is what I sometimes do with the Lord. He asks me to do something, and I do it. But rather than continuing to do it until He says stop; I just grow tired and give up. I think this is a problem that many of us struggle with… we start well, but we don’t FINISH WELL. We give 25%, 50%, 75% of the way into the task, instead of seeing it through to the end. Jesus never gave up. He never gave in. He finished the job.

What about you? Will you give up? Will you give in? Will you only see the job through to the 80% mark, and then throw in the towel? The Lord has given us all we need to start well, live well, and finish well. We just need to stay in a place of dependence on him. We can learn from the king of Israel… Don’t stop doing what God has told you to do until He says stop!