V 11. Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving.
It is incredibly easy to start on something – and then give up! Many of you will have incomplete items of craft work lurking in a cupboard: sewing, knitting, painting, woodwork, perhaps even an unfinished novel that you dreamt of writing. The intention was there, and you made an enthusiastic start, but then …. well …. you know what it is!
These Christians in Corinth had started eagerly on a giving project. They had every intention of sharing their money and property with others, but then it tailed away.
Its like that with resolutions in the New Year isn’t!
You cut back on the chocolate and cakes, reduced your intake of coffee, started a healthier exercise routine, committed yourself to a ‘dry’ January, and where are you now with the first weekend of the new year coming up? Or you started out determined to be generous and give more of your money (or time) for a worthwhile purpose. How’s it going? Have you made a good beginning, and are you determined to go on with it?
Heavenly Father, please give me the patience to persevere with the commitments I have taken on; the generosity to give when it is natural to hang on to things and the grace to forgive when things seem to go wrong. AMEN.