One of the greatest tragedies in life is to get very close to reaching your goal, accomplishing what you really felt God wanted you to do, only to fall short of completion. It’s always sad to have to quit a few hundred meters short of the mountain top or get close to the finish line, only to give up.
Unrealized goals, unfulfilled ambitions, unreached potentials are not only sad, but at times, tragic as well. “He was almost there,” we say. Or with a sigh we speak of “the person he or she could have been!” Then we focus on the “what if?” or “if only” scenario – something that didn’t happen.
A dream is often the faint impression of what God really intends you to accomplish, something that you must trust Him to bring about and work towards with all your might.
A thousand years after King David lived, Luke, one of the writers of the New Testament, included a few thoughts about how David was remembered. He wrote, “For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep…” (Acts 13:36). Another translation adds a phrase that injects even more meaning. It reads, “For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation according to the will of God, he fell asleep” (Nestle’s Greek text).
Measure your life against the benchmark of what Luke wrote about David. He served God’s purpose and accomplished what God intended him to do.
Whatever God has called you to do is within your grasp, and living out your calling will someday enable you to say, “I have fulfilled God’s purpose and finished the task He gave me in life.”
This devotion is taken from Finding Refuge and Strength by Dr. Harold Sala, an original title from OMF Literature.