finishing what you start

⁶I am confident of this very thing: that he who has begun this good work in you will perfect it, unto the day of Christ Jesus.

¹¹So, truly now, accomplish this in deed, so that, in the same manner as your willing mind is prompted, you may also act, out of that which you have.

⁸A false accusation troubles the wise man and saps the strength of his heart.

²Be vigilant, and confirm the things that remain, lest they soon die out. For I do not find your works to be full in the sight of my God.

¹⁰And about this, I give my counsel. For this is useful to those of you who, only a year earlier, had just begun to act, or even to be willing to act. ¹¹So, truly now, accomplish this in deed, so that, in the same manner as your willing mind is prompted, you may also act, out of that which you have. ¹²For when the will is prompted, it receives according to what that person has, not according to what that person does not have.

³⁴Jesus said to them: “My food is to do the will of the One who sent me, so that I may perfect his work.

⁷I have fought the good fight. I have completed the course. I have preserved the faith.

²⁸For who among you, wanting to build a tower, would not first sit down and determine the costs that are required, to see if he has the means to complete it? ²⁹Otherwise, after he will have laid the foundation and not been able to finish it, everyone who sees it may begin to mock him, ³⁰saying: ‘This man began to build what he was not able to finish.’

¹³Everything is possible in him who has strengthened me.

²³Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as for the Lord, and not for men.

¹²Blessed is the man who suffers temptation. For when he has been proven, he shall receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.

¹And so the heavens and the earth were completed, with all their adornment. ²And on the seventh day, God fulfilled his work, which he had made. And on the seventh day he rested from all his work, which he had accomplished. ³And he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. For in it, he had ceased from all his work: the work whereby God created whatever he should make.

¹Furthermore, since we also have so great a cloud of witnesses over us, let us set aside every burden and sin which may surround us, and advance, through patience, to the struggle offered to us.

¹⁵Now the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul, in fifty-two days. ¹⁶Then it happened that, when all our enemies had heard of it, all the nations that were around us were afraid, and they were downcast within themselves. For they knew that this work had been accomplished by God.

²⁴But I dread none of these things. Neither do I consider my life to be more precious because it is my own, provided that in some way I may complete my own course and that of the ministry of the Word, which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God.