Cutting The Wrong End of the Fishing Line

It is not my intent to write something daily (maybe weekly) but doing a blog can be contagious! Not contagious in the sense of the flu or a virus that leaves you feeling bad but in the sense of something that leaves you with a satisfaction once completed. In my devotion this morning I meditated on the thought of "finishing well."

John Maxwell states "Leaders can undo their accomplishments by failing to finish well." It is like tying a hook on your fishing line and then when you go to cut the excess line off, you cut the wrong end. Of course, I know you have never done anything like that!

In my devotion this morning I looked at a few of the leaders in the bible that started well but failed to finish strong. 2 Chronicles gives us some of these examples. Asa was one of these that seem to start well. 2 Chronicles 15:2 gives us a principle that Asa started out living by: "The Lord is with you when you are with Him."

Later in 2 Chronicles 16 we see Asa beginning to depend on man instead of God. He was warned by God's prophet but it just seem to make Asa angry and the result was that he imprisoned God's prophet.

Another thing about following man instead of God is that we seem to take our problems out on others when things are not going well, and Asa did just that. 2 Chronicles 16:10 tells us that "Asa oppressed some of the people at that time." Like many leaders that start out well, Asa undone much of what he had accomplish as a great leader.

It is my prayer that I will not undo what few accomplishments I might have made (and that I will quit cutting the wrong end of the fishing line:)