Galatians 3:3
"Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?"
Finishing right is just as important as starting right. Many people start off right and do a good job, but every Christian should also desire to finish right. Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:" It should be the desire of every Christian to finish their course.
When I think of this subject, I think of sports. Many times as I watch football games, when the third quarter ends I see the players raise their hands with four fingers raised. The reason they do this is to remind them that just because they played three quarters well doesn't mean they can let up in the fourth quarter. They have to finish the way they started by playing hard and playing to their standard. This is how teams win, and this is how people will succeed in the Christian life.
Paul asked the Galatian Christians, "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" They started right by allowing the Holy Spirit to lead them, but they were finishing by letting their flesh control them. They started right by understanding their salvation was kept by the Spirit of God, but they were finishing by preaching a works salvation. Paul wanted these Christians to understand that it takes the power of the Holy Spirit in the latter part of their lives to finish right just as much as it took the Holy Spirit's power to start right.
It is very easy in the Christian life to become dependent upon the flesh to do the work of God when we still need the power of the Holy Spirit to do His work. What happens many times is we have trained our flesh to do the work of God; thus, we rely on our flesh instead of upon the power of the Holy Spirit. When we first started serving the LORD, we didn't know how to do God's work, so we spent time begging Him for His power and we saw the Holy Spirit empower us to do a great work. But, many years have gone by and we have done the works of God over and over again. Now, we know how to do it ourselves because we have trained our flesh to do right. Now, we don't beg for the power of the Holy Spirit because we know how to do God's work and think we don't need His power as much. Oh, we mentally know we need His power, but it's obvious we don't practice what we know because we don't beg for His power as we used to.
Preacher, do you beg for the power of the Holy Spirit before you go to the pulpit as much as you did when you first started preaching? Sunday school teacher, do you spend as much time begging the Holy Spirit to empower you as you did in times past? Christian, do you spend as much time on your face begging God for His power as you did when you first got saved? You need the power of the Holy Spirit as much now as you did when you first began. Your flesh cannot do the work of the Holy Spirit as well as He can. Your flesh will only lead you to do fleshly works, but it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to do spiritual works in a life changing way.
I ask you to consider whether you are finishing the way you started. Friend, do you beg for the Holy Spirit's power as you did when you first started? Don't become reliant upon what your flesh knows to do. Yes, your flesh knows how to do the works of God, but you still need God's power to do these spiritual works. Be sure that you finish the way you started by relying upon the Holy Spirit power to help you do God's works. Don't let your flesh fool you into believing you can do it on your own. Spend as much time today begging for God's power as you did when you began. This is the only way to see God work through you as He did in times past.