Finishing and when it feels like the road is stretching on and on


 “Tell Archippus: ‘See to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord” (Colossians 4:17).


In Paul’s instructions to the people at Colossae, he sends a message to the minister Archippus to complete the work of the Lord.

 
Some authorities believe Archippus, whom Paul also greets in Philemon 2, belonged to Philemon’s family. According to tradition, he was also one of the seventy-two disciples Jesus appointed in Luke 10.

 
Later, some sources indicate he met martyrdom near Laodicea.

 
So, it seems, he did complete the work God gave him to do.

 
 

           

On a recent road trip, it felt like it took forever to get back home. Sometimes the road of life God calls us to journey can seem a long and difficult one, too.


However, it’s important to recall Paul’s instructions to Archippus to complete the work we’ve received in the Lord.


When thoughts of giving up come, it helps to look to those who’ve gone before, those whose faithfulness continually inspires us to keep going.
 


“But if you’ll say He heard you when your prayer was but a cry,

And if you’ll say He saw you through the night’s sin-darkened sky—

If you have gone a little way ahead, oh, friend, call back—

‘Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.”

 

Paul himself said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith…” 2 Timothy 4:7-8.

Most of all, it helps me to remember Jesus, our supreme example whose last words on the cross were, “It is finished.”
 

We thank God when the road stretches on and on, he can enable us to be faithful even in the midst of adversity.
 

And we thank Him for his words: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

 Take a few moments and listen to Steven Curtis Chapman, who knows a lot about the "Long Way Home."