#20: Finish What God Told You to Start

In this final episode of the May series, Focus, April Nova Scipio shares an encouraging conversation about follow-through, consistency, and finishing what God has placed in your hands.

Because starting is exciting.

But finishing?
 That’s where transformation happens.

So many women are stuck in cycles of:

•  starting and stopping 
•  overthinking and delaying 
•  constantly searching for something new 

All while ignoring what God already asked them to do.

This episode is an invitation to return to what matters, stay committed through the process, and build a life marked by faithful follow-through.

In this episode, we talk about:

•  Why unfinished obedience keeps us stuck in cycles 
•  The temptation to constantly start over 
•  Why discipline matters more than motivation 
•  How consistency shapes spiritual growth 
•  The importance of finishing what God assigned to you 

If you’ve been feeling discouraged, inconsistent, distracted, or tempted to give up, this conversation will encourage you to keep going with peace, intention, and endurance.

You do not need a new idea.

You may simply need to return to what God already said and stay faithful with it.

Key Scripture:
 Galatians 6:9 (NLT) - “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

Scriptures Mentioned:

•  Galatians 6:9 
•  Luke 16:10 

If you are looking for Christian encouragement, faith-based motivation, spiritual growth, or practical ways to stay focused and consistent in your walk with God, this episode is for you.

Subscribe for weekly faith-filled conversations about spiritual growth, intentional living, biblical rhythms, and building a Spirit-led life.

Website:
 www.thenovacompany.org

Instagram:
 @aprilnovascipio

Faith first. Rhythm always.

✨ Next Step:

If you’re ready to continue this journey with support and community, join the Nova Community—a faith-filled space for women learning to live with clarity, peace, and faith-first rhythms

👉 Learn more at https://thenovacompany.org

✨ Private Mentorship Community:

If you are interested in applying to join my private mentorship community, email me: april@thenovacompany.org

✨ novaRetreat: 3rd Annual Dream with God Retreat

A Spirit-led weekend for women ready to abide deeply, align intentionally, & courageously advance as God reveals what’s next.

👉 Learn more at https://www.thenovacompany.org/novaretreat 

Subscribe to The NovaCo Podcast and share this episode with a friend who’s stepping into a new season.

🎸 Intro music produced by Cory Valjien. https://spotify.link/Ot87eEITRDb

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the NovaCo podcast. This podcast is a faith-filled lifestyle podcast for women just like you who desire clarity, peace, and alignment in their everyday lives. I'm your host, April Nova Scipio. So excited that you're joining in today. If you're brand new to the podcast, welcome. If you have been with me for a while, so glad you're back. This podcast is really to help you build a life rooted in truth, right? We want to anchor our identity in Christ and we want to create rhythms that support our lives. I am excited about today because we're finishing up a series about focus. And it's ironic because we're finishing up a series and this conversation is about finishing. So it's going to be a great one. If you haven't subscribed to the podcast, go ahead and do that today. And if you haven't joined our community, listen, you need to be a part of Nova Community. We are a group of women. We are building friendships all around God's word. We're supporting each other. We're praying for each other. We're creating rhythms and we're building things that last. Definitely want you to be a part of that. You can click on the link in the show notes of this episode to learn more about Nova Community. Now, this week we're talking about finishing because, okay, now starting something that is exciting. I love new beginnings. I love to start projects. Listen, starting is really my jam, but what I'm learning every single day, more and more, is that finishing, finishing is where the transformation happens because unfinished obedience will always keep you in cycles. I need to say that again. Y'all need to tweet that, X that uh tag me, because that's just truth, you guys. Unfinished obedience will always keep you in cycles. And so this month we're choosing completion, right? We don't need another idea. We don't need a fresh start. We don't need something new to focus on. What we need is to finish what's already in our hands. So many women are living in cycles of starting and stopping, restarting, rethinking. And here's what we do. When we get in that cycle, we call it waiting on God. When in reality, God already spoke. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up. There is harvest connected to your follow-through. And if we're gonna actually harvest something, follow through, it's gonna require endurance. And when you think about endurance, like endurance is not exciting, it's not very motivating to think about I have to endure, right? But man, when we endure, that endure that endurance produces such a great harvest in our lives, it's a harvest of blessing. So we are choosing to endure today. We are choosing to follow through, we are choosing to finish because we're choosing to harvest. Okay, we're choosing to harvest. So grab your journal. I want you to write this down. Write this thought down. You don't need something new, you need to return. You don't need something new, you need to return. There's a huge temptation to start over. There just is because we desire something fresh. But a lot of times that is just the avoidance of finishing. Because new, it just feels easier than finishing. But God is often in what we've already started. So I want us to just take time this week and think about okay, what projects have I left incomplete? What ideas were clear, but I put them on pause. What assignments, like I know I have them, but I've been delayed. I've been delaying them. And I'm doing this exercise myself. I've in fact, I've already started. And, you know, the I'm giving the Lord permission to step on my toes, and He He totally is, because our projects, our ideas, our assignments are all connected to people. We have people on the other side of our finish. And so we got to return to what the Lord said, what we started, and get it done. Okay, here's the second thing I want you to write down in your journal. Incomplete obedience creates cycles. Incomplete obedience creates cycles. Luke chapter 16, verse 10. It says, if you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities. This is huge. We don't want to live our lives with any kind of partial disobedience, delayed disobedience, avoided disobedience. We don't want any parts of that because that is what keeps us stuck, right? We have to be faithful in all the things, be obedient, obedient in all the things so that we can be trusted with greater things. So whatever we don't complete, right? When we do the partial obedience, the delayed obedience, avoided obedience, all the things. The things that we don't come complete, those are the things that we will keep revisiting because we know we need to do them. That's why that's why we feel stuck. That's why we feel like we're starting over. That's why we feel like nothing is moving, because we keep revisiting instead of completing. But what we're saying today is today I'm gonna complete, I'm gonna obey, I'm gonna be faithful. And as I'm faithful in these things, I position myself for more things that God has for me. The second point I want you to write down is this follow through requires discipline, not emotion. Follow through requires discipline, not emotion. Feelings change. If you hang out with me for a while, this will not be the last time you hear me say this because feelings are so, so, so real. And they like it's important that we are aware of them, we acknowledge them, but we can't let our feelings lead us because they change. Now, just because feelings change doesn't mean that our focus has to change, right? We want to stay focused regardless of the feelings because you won't always feel like finishing, but you can choose to stay consistent. How do we apply this in our lives? Well, decide what finishing looks like, and then remove any unnecessary pressure, right? Just take it one step at a time. Completion is built in the small, consistent steps. Sometimes we look at the big assignment, the big picture, the 85 million things, and we're thinking, there's no way I can finish all of that, or we feel very um pressured or overwhelmed, but it's like we're looking at the wrong thing. Let's let's remove the unnecessary pressure. Let's just take it one step at a time. And if I continue to take these steps, that is consistency. And that's like that's when I'm staying focused. So I'm gonna follow through based on what I'm choosing to do, not based on like how I'm feeling. So this is very, very, very key. When you think about, you know, having breakthrough in your life. Breakthrough a lot of times isn't just in the starting. Like sometimes, yes, takes a lot for people to start. I don't want to negate that, but it's in the staying, the staying that the transformation happens, the real breakthrough happens. Why do I say real breakthrough? Because once you start, whoo, the enemy is not gonna like that. Time after time, like I know God told me to do something. I broke through, I started, and now the enemy wants to come with the distraction, the disruption. But here's what I've decided. Listen, I am going to follow through so I can see the fruit that God has for me. That is a decision we have to make, right? When we delay in finishing something, we're delaying the fruit, we're delaying the breakthrough, we're delaying the harvest. What we're saying today is no more delay. I'm gonna experience my real transformation and I'm gonna finish. I'm gonna be a finisher in this season of my life. So, in your journal, here are three questions I want you to sit with this week. Number one, what have I started that I haven't finished? What have I started that I haven't finished? Secondly, where have I been avoiding follow through? Where have I been avoiding follow through? And the third question, what does finishing look like this week? What does finishing look like this week? So let's sit with these because we are declaring we're gonna be faithful with what God has given us. We're not gonna get give up and get weary and well doing. We are going to follow through and finish what God told us. Here's our declaration. Say this after me. I finish what God has called me to start. I am consistent and disciplined. I walk in obedience through completion. Yes, you guys, we are we are we are obeying this week. We're completing this week, we're finishing this week. We're ready, we're ready to position ourselves for the greatest harvest of our lives. Let me pray for us today. God is up to something so big in our lives, and we're partnering with him, and we're gonna finish. We're going to the end, you guys. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you for this reminder of the power of finishing. Father, forgive us for disobedience. Forgive us for partially obeying, forgive us for avoiding following through. God, thank you that you don't change your mind about us, that you're still giving us opportunity to complete the things that you've allowed us to start. God, I thank you for that. I thank you for endurance, Lord. I thank you for clarity. I thank you for the strength to follow through. And Lord, as we complete the things that you've assigned to us, Lord, our heart is to hear these words. Well done. Father, thank you for trusting us. We love you, we honor you, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, you guys. All right, this week, okay, don't start anything new this week. Just go back and finish. Go back and finish. That's what I'm doing this week. We're gonna go back and finish because that is where our growth is, okay? It's where our growth is. I hope you enjoyed this series all month long. This series was definitely not about doing more. But we talked about hearing from God. We talked about removing the distractions, we talked about building rhythm, and we talked about finishing what he said. It's been a great month. We're gonna finish this month strong, you guys. I'm so grateful for what God is doing. He's a good God. I want to connect with you further. If you haven't joined Nova community again, here's the invitation. But then also, Labor Day weekend, we're having our third annual Dream with God prayer retreat. It's so hard to put into words every single thing that God does in all of the lives of the women there. But I know if you pray about it, God will reveal to you if you need to be in that room or not. And if he is nudging you, the link is in the show notes of this podcast. Go ahead and get registered today. And it's gonna be a good, it's gonna be a good retreat. It's gonna be not just a good retreat, it's gonna be a good season, it's gonna be a good day today. We're gonna have good moments. We're just gonna experience all the good hats, all the good that God has for us. I love you guys so much with the love of Christ. Thanks for hanging out with me today. Subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already, and I'll see you next episode. We're gonna start a new series. You have to be here to find out, but it's gonna be good because God is good. This is April Nova Sipio, and this is how we live faith first, rhythm always. Be blessed. Love you guys.