Finish Well..Rev. M.D. Rogers

Before he died, the apostle Paul wrote with confidence about his life, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:7, NKJV). He wasn't boasting. He was saying that he had remained true to the course God had laid out for him. He had not only lived well but also finished well.
I believe that every Christian has a course set out before him—whether, like Paul, he is in full-time ministry or not—and that he will be judged based on how successfully he finishes it. We all are called to both begin and end well—and to live well in between.
As I age, I think more and more about finishing my life well. Like most people I've always tended to think that the end is far away, somewhere in the distant future.
Scripture confirms, however, that we have no guarantee of tomorrow. As the psalmist wrote, "My times are in Your hand" (Ps. 31:15). I have to ask myself: If I went home to be with the Lord tomorrow, how would anyone know whether I finished well?
The final word on whether a person finishes well belongs to God and God alone. I'm not sure anyone else will be around to hear His "Well done, good and faithful servant" (see Matt. 25:21), if He should say that to us—certainly not those who are still living.
Not many people are remembered beyond one or two generations after their deaths. So if nothing else, you can finish well by leaving behind a good name that your children and grandchildren can remember.
If you don't have children, then you can leave a good name among those who knew you best, whether friends or associates. For that to happen, you will have to spend some time being a blessing to others, using your time and gifts to serve their needs.
Ultimately, it is most important to finish well in God's eyes. When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, not many people were happy with the job he was doing. Yet today there aren't too many cities in the United States that don't have some memorial to his work and name.
Perhaps we should remember Nehemiah's prayers as we consider our lives and our desire to finish well. On two separate occasions, Nehemiah prayed that God would remember him for the work he had done: "Remember me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people" (Neh. 5:19); "Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for its services!" (Neh. 13:14).