To God be the Glory FOREVER, AMEN AND AMEN! ! !

“How you finish” is the focus for our study this month. Rather than accomplishments in sports, we're examining “faith-full” finishes—people of God who demonstrated faith that overcomes. We want to study the examples in Scripture of faith that perseveres through adversity in order to inherit God's greatest gift.

We get a peek at the reward for finishing a life of faith in our passage today. The glorious picture of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 is not simply a description of what the city looks like—it is a promise of unfettered fellowship. After God banished Adam and Eve from His presence in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:23-24), sin has interfered with the communion between man and God that He intended at creation. Jesus has made a way for us to have a relationship with God, and through His victories, God is restoring His entire creation (v. 5; cf. Rom. 8:19-24). At last, in the New Jerusalem, the essential characteristic of the city will be that “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them” (v. 3).

Those who persevere in faith will gain this ultimate blessing (v. 7). The book of Revelation teaches that the overcomers are those who do not compromise their faith for the world's values (2:14, 20), who depend on God wholeheartedly, not on their own strength (3:17), and who withstand persecution and suffering of all kinds (2:10). Finishing well means having steadfast trust in and obedience to God. To keep the faith is to endure trials with your heart resolute on loving God and your eyes fixed on the image of fellowship with Him described in Revelation 21.

As a bride readies herself for her groom, so we should be preparing ourselves even now through faithful obedience to God to dwell with Him forever.