CHAPTER THREE
STAYING THE COURSE
Do you have a personal mission statement? You should!
As
an example, this is the personal mission statement of Stephen Covey’s friend,
Rolfe Kerr:
Succeed at home first
Never compromise with honesty
Hear both sides before judging
Obtain the counsel of others
Defend those who are absent
Develop one new proficiency a year
Plan tomorrow’s work today
Maintain a positive attitude
Keep a sense of humor
Be orderly in person and in work
Listen twice as much as you speak
Concentrate all abilities and efforts on the task at
hand, not worrying about the next job or promotion.
Guys who screw up are those who willfully and
purposefully remove themselves from the protection of Jesus Christ. There’s no
reason in the world that any of us shouldn’t finish strong. I don’t care what
the odds are, you and I don’t have to go down.
The Godly Man’s Picture by Thomas Watson; Twenty-Four Characteristics of a Godly Man
A man of knowledge
A man moved by faith
A man fired by love
A man like God
A man careful about the worship of God
A man who serves God, not men
A man who prizes Christ
A man who weeps
A man who loves the Word
A man who has the Spirit of God residing in him
A man of humility
A man of prayer
A man of sincerity
A heavenly man
A zealous man
A patient man
A thankful man
A man who loves the saints
A man who does not indulge himself in any sin
A man who is good in his relationships
A man who does spiritual things in a spiritual manner
A man thoroughly trained in religion
A man who walks with God
A man who strives to be an instrument for making others
godly
Such a man is as sure to go to heaven as if he were in
heaven already.
Summary in four:
Guys who finish strong STAY
Stay In the Scriptures: pick a book in the Bible and read
it in bits and pieces. Take note of the passages that jump out to you.
Highlight them and then when through with the book, compile the outstanding
passages on to 5x4 cards and put them in your car, bathroom, office etc
Guys who finish strong are those who chew God’s truth all
day long. It works! Try it for a week and see if it doesn’t help you fight off
temptation. You chew, you spit and guess what? You finish the day strong. And
at the end of all days, you finish life strong.
Stay Close to a friend: one of the primary ways the enemy
keeps a guy from finishing strong is isolation. Instead of being close to
anyone, you become distant. Instead of being gut-level honest, you begin to
shade the truth. And instead of following Christ, you begin to act like you
were following Christ. That’s what
happens when a guy gets isolated and tries to go one on one with Satan.
According to Hebrews 3:12-13, (NIV), if you don’t have
encouragement – even daily encouragement – you could be deceived by sin. You
could get hard and begin to turn away from the Lord. This kind of friendship
isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. If you don’t have a friend, ask God to give
you one and be willing to take the first step and become a friend to someone.
Friendship doubles our joys and divides our grief. Depression is one of the
more subtle ambushes of the enemy. Truth is, most men, at one time or another
in their lives are going to walk through some valley of depression. The family
circle is the supreme conductor of Christianity. The enemy loves to isolate us,
to get us into thinking we don’t need anybody. That’s not masculine, that’s
stupid. We desperately need good friends, those with whom we can share failure
as well as success. Those that are there when times are good and when they are
bad. They care about us enough to tell us when we’re on track and when we are
screwing up. If you’ve got a friend or two like that, your chance of finishing
strong will go up a thousand percent!
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances
through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man, sir, must keep his
friendships in constant repair. - Samuel Johnson
He who ceases to be your friend never was a good one. –
Scottish Proverb
Stay Away from other women: keep an appropriate distance
in your relationships with women with whom we work and associate. You don’t
need to be weird or act strange. You don’t need to make anyone feel
uncomfortable to be around you. But both the women you work with and your wife
will intuitively know by your behavior and actions that here is a man who is
clean and pure in relationships with all women. Here’s a man willing to go the
extra mile in commitment to his wife. Sexual temptation and immorality is the
number one issue in the lives of most men and the time-proven tactic for
snaring Christian men and keeping them from finishing strong and the statistics
prove it. Given the right person in the
right circumstances, we all have the potential of paying the wrong price for a
moment of pleasure.
Some things in life are more important than life itself.
Like removing oneself from situations where one could possibly be tempted.
Ministry begins at home. My first ministry responsibility
is to my wife. The second is to my children. If you want to finish strong,
there is one non-negotiable trait that you must embrace in your life regarding
sexual temptation and that trait is gut-level honesty.
Stay Alert to the tactics of the enemy: Satan makes the
worse appear a better reason.
Not to realize that you are in a conflict means only one
thing, and it is that you are so hopelessly defeated, and so “knocked out” as
it were, that you do not even know it – you are unconscious! It means that you
are completely defeated by the devil. Anyone who is not aware of a fight and a
conflict in a spiritual sense is in a drugged and hazardous condition. – Martyn
Lloyd-Jones
God give us men. A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands.
Men whom the lust of the office does not kill,
Men whom the spoils of the office cannot buy,
Men who posses opinions and a will,
Men who love honor, men who will not lie. – Josiah
Gilbert Holland
Source: Finishing Strong by Steve Farrar
