Joshua 10:18-22: in context

In the heat of the battle, five enemy kings flee and hide in a cave. Joshua orders large stones rolled over the cave's mouth and guards set, but he gives a pointed command: do not stay there. Pursue your enemies, and attack them from behind; do not let them reach their cities, for the LORD has delivered them into your hand. The trapped kings could wait; the work of the day was not finished. Joshua would not let his men stop at the sealed cave while the victory remained incomplete.

Joshua's command, do not stay there, but pursue and finish the work, holds a principle worth carrying. There was a temptation to stop at the cave, to feel the day's work was done now that the kings were trapped, to linger there satisfied. Joshua resists it: the enemy was not yet defeated, the pursuit not yet complete, and to stop now would be to leave the work half done and let the enemy escape to their strongholds. He calls his men not to halt partway but to press on and finish what God had given them to do. This speaks to a tendency in us to stop short of completion. We begin a work God has given, make good progress, and then are tempted to stop before it is finished, to rest satisfied partway, to linger at the sealed cave while the task remains incomplete. The initial effort spent, we lose momentum, grow weary, and settle for a work half done. Joshua's word cuts against this: do not stop there; press on; finish the work. What is begun is to be carried through to completion, not abandoned partway. Scripture urges the same perseverance to the end. Let us not grow weary in doing good, Paul says, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back, Jesus says, is fit for the kingdom. The call is not only to begin but to finish, to press on to completion rather than stopping short. This searches the works we have left half done, the tasks we abandoned when the momentum faded, the good beginnings never carried through. Joshua would not let his men stop at the cave while the victory was incomplete; and we are called likewise not to stop short of finishing what God has given us, but to press on, through weariness and fading momentum, to complete the work rather than leaving it half done. Do not stay there, but pursue: the call is to persevere to completion, finishing what we begin rather than settling for a work left unfinished.

Do I stop short of finishing the works God gives me, resting satisfied partway or abandoning good beginnings when the momentum fades, and can I take Joshua's command, do not stay there but pursue and finish, as a call to persevere to completion, pressing on through weariness rather than leaving the work half done?