When LeBron James signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in July of 2018, the goal of bringing another championship to LA was immediately put in place. At the time, they didn’t have a championship roster or another star to play alongside LeBron.

However, through the process of making trades and signing the right free agents, the team became much improved. The addition of Anthony Davis especially made them better and took them to a whole other level.

LeBron signing on the dotted line is when it all began for the new-look Lakers. Now, two years later, they are playing in the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat. Last night they jumped out to take a 1-0 series lead with a convincing 116-98 win.

At the start of the playoffs, they were one of the contenders, but it was a process to get the team to play with chemistry and find the right rotation. After each series, they’ve gotten better and better as they pursue their goal of becoming NBA Champions.

Lakers center, Dwight Howard, is using an appropriate playoffs mantra, “The job is not finished.” This Kobe Bryant quote was used years ago during the 2009 Finals and has provided the right mentality since the work isn’t done until the Lakers win that fourth game against Miami and complete what they started.

When you and I initially surrender our lives to Jesus and receive salvation through faith, we begin a life-long journey of spiritual maturity. We enter into the process of becoming more and more like Christ as we follow Him.

The goal is for God to grow us, transform us, and sanctify us through each “series” of life. Along the way, however, we know we aren’t perfect or fully mature, and “the job is not finished.”

Thankfully, through God’s grace and power within us as we seek Him, we change and aren’t the same as we once were when we began to follow Him.

The Bible tells us when the work will be completed and that we can trust Jesus along the way because He is “…the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity]…” (Hebrews 12:2; AMP).

Paul explains in Philippians 1:6 about the process and the following two versions should help us understand:

The Amplified Bible says, “I am convinced and confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will [continue to] perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus [the time of His return].”

The Living Bible translates it this way: “And I am sure that God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns.”

So today, let’s choose humility and grace because the “job is not finished,” but let’s have confident faith that God is working in us and He’ll finish what He’s started.

I’m Bryce Johnson and you can UNPACK that!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank You for growing me and changing me and helping me to become more like Jesus. I need Your grace and a humble heart as I go through the sanctifying process. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.