God completes what he undertakes.
(See Philippians 1:6.) "The Lord will carry to an end all things that concern my welfare." Man lives and moves through life surrounded with unfinished things. He has constantly to say, "My purposes are broken off!" He is always attempting what he cannot accomplish, beginning what he cannot carry through. God must be thought of as always having a distinct purpose in whatever he undertakes, and as active until that purpose is realized. Illustrate by reference to 2 Samuel 7:25-29.
I. GOD ALWAYS HAS A PURPOSE. Thoughtless action, unpremeditated action, can never be associated with God. Men drift into things without knowing where they are going to. God never does. Men may talk about "waiting for something to turn up." God never does. He is the Infinite Mind; and mind is put into everything he does. He knows the end from the beginning. We have always this consolation—there are no accidents to God. He is never surprised, never taken at unawares. He has a meaning in everything he does, a purpose in every design he forms. "Throughout the ages one unceasing purpose runs."
II. GOD'S PURPOSE IS NEVER FORGOTTEN. Man so often crowds his life with interests that he forgets what he intended to do. He is carried away with new attractions, and quite forgets what he meant to do. So man's path is beset with the "young lions" of unfinished schemes—things dropped and forgotten in order to take up some new thing. God never forgets. To us he may seem to; and this may be our explanation of his delay. His purpose is kept ever in view.
III. GOD'S PURPOSE IS NEVER FRUSTRATED. Man's often is. He proposes to himself too much, and life beats him. Or what he proposes crosses what somebody else proposes, and the opposition beats him. God never proposes to himself what is beyond himself; for he can do what he will. God permits no rivalry of human purposes to cross or frustrate his perfect plan.—R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT