Caitlin Bachtold

Get On With It

So come on, let’s leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on “salvation by self-help” and turning in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we’ll stay true to all that. But there’s so much more. Let’s get on with it! Hebrews 6:1-3

Before we get rolling here, I just have to point out one thing… I don’t know about you, but for me, sometimes The Message version of a Scripture is so motivating. When I read the first few verses of Hebrews 6 today, I could not help but feel convicted… maybe you feel the same way. Anyways, moving right along today… 🙂

I’ll be honest: it’s easy for me to focus on the “preschool fingerpainting exercises” of my faith and miss the “grand work of art” that God really wants to grow me in. I seem to start off really strong after Sunday, but since I’m incredibly task oriented and to-do-list driven, by the end of the work week I often am going through the motions and missing the big picture of what God is doing in the midst of my everyday. I love that Hebrews 6 literally tells me that there is so much more to life than that… and when I’m barely able to find time to be with the Lord during a busy week, I can’t help but realize I’m just sitting here doing those preschool fingerpainting exercises when God’s painting a gorgeous work of art that He wants me to make time to be a part of.

I listened to a sermon the other day that reminded us as Christians that God loves us enough to give us free will. He is not going to make us do anything… all the way from preventing us from sinning to forcing us to trust in Jesus for our salvation. That goes for the things Hebrews 6 convicted me about, too: I have the choice to orient my life in such a way that I do exchange my meager attempts at fingerpainting for watching God paint a canvas. I can choose to live my days on this earth out in a way that puts Christ at the center of all things- my conversations, my errands, my emails, all of it. I have the choice to make the jump from the tiny to the grand- and God’s not going to make me do it. I have the choice, and He’s just waiting for me to take it.

What are grander things that God is waiting for you to choose this week? And what faith steps does God want you to take to grow your faith walk with Him, today? I fully believe that He wants us to trade in our meager attempts at finding full life on our own for the bigger, more beautiful things He’s already put in place for us. I hope that today you can be encouraged to get on with the grand work of art Christ has ready and waiting for you and to leave behind the lesser things. It’s time to grow in our faith and get on with what God has next for us.

We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:18-20

Influence

When I saw which chapter of 1 Timothy was today’s reading, I had to smile, because it’s a passage of Scripture that I’ve read so many times before. While the heading of the chapter is “Qualifications for Overseers and Deacons,” a mentor of mine a few years ago encouraged me to read 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and a similar passage, Titus 1:5-9, and consider the same qualifications Paul lists for these church leaders when praying and waiting for my future husband. At first, it seemed like a weird suggestion to me, but once I dug deeper into the heart of what God was saying in these passages, I realized that my mentor was right, and the man I wanted to end up with someday should have these sorts of characteristics as the leader of our marriage and of our future family. In 1 Timothy 3, we see that Paul has a few main characteristics that he points out as being of particular importance in the character of a leader. 1 Timothy 3: 2-10 says,

²Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, ³not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. ⁴He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full[a] respect. ⁵(If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) ⁶He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. ⁷He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. ⁸In the same way, deacons are to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain. ⁹They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. ¹⁰They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons.

Verse 11 shares a little about Paul’s expectations for women:

¹¹In the same way, the women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.

And lastly, Paul finishes with a few more words about men as leaders in the church:

¹²A deacon must be faithful to his wife and must manage his children and his household well. ¹³Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.

While I’m not looking for a husband anymore, my mentor’s advice was helpful… and I’m blessed to say that God brought someone into my life who lives out each of the characteristics that Paul says we should look for in leaders and that tmy mentor said I should wait for in a husband. 🙂 But regardless, I think we can all learn from 1 Timothy 3, because we ALL have influence somewhere in our lives. Whether we’re involved with a family, a church, a business, a small group, or even a friendship, we ARE leaders and we CAN lead where we are. Furthermore, we can become better leaders by developing these godly characteristics within ourselves and asking God to grow us in these areas. Today, my prayer is that God will help me grow where I am currently weak so that I can be a better leader in the areas over which I have influence… no matter how big or how small.

Watchful & Thankful

I’m not sure why, but when I was younger, I was in the (admittedly awesome) habit of praying one verse before I went anywhere or hung out with anyone. Big or small – an event or a trip to the grocery store – I, for some reason, would always remind myself to pray the verse, “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer,” beforehand (Psalm 19:4). I can’t help but be reminded of that verse and that habit when I read Colossians 4. Colossians 4:2-6 says,

²Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. ³And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ⁴Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.⁵Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. ⁶Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

What my junior high heart probably didn’t quite realize when I would pray that verse was that I was asking for God’s help to make Colossians 4:5-6 come true in my life that day. As a follower of Jesus, I deeply desire to make the most out of every opportunity I have in this life and to glorify God with each opportunity. I want to be known as someone who lifts others up in conversation and someone who is known for her gracious words. I might not pray for that as often as I used to or as often as I should, but I so deeply want those things for my life.

Yet, so often, my conversation is NOT full of grace and I let opportunities slip through the cracks. I fall short because I am a broken human being, and I know that I will continue to mess up. You likely know this about yourself, too.

Thank goodness, we serve a God who is infinitely more gracious towards us than we often are to ourselves. Whereas I tend to beat myself up for the ways that I fail, my God sees me through the lens of Jesus and He just asks me to come to Him and ask for help… and Colossians 4:2 tells us how. That verse says, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” That’s it. No “try harder” or “work more” or even a simply “be better” is found in those verses. Just an encouragement to PRAYER. I love that. Prayer truly can allow us to watch for those opportunities and remind us to watch our tongues, and no amount of our striving or our effort can match the power of devoted prayer.

Today, I want to encourage you to start your day with some prayer time and ask God to help you as you go about your day. I’ll be praying Psalm 19:14 over my conversations and interactions today, along with those first few verses of Colossians 4. Perhaps you’ll do the same.

The Gift of Grace

My small group is currently doing a study about the book of Galatians. Although we are currently in the book of Ephesians for today’s study, I couldn’t help but be reminded of my readings for that Galatians study while I read Ephesians 2.

The Galatians study my small group is going through is wrecking my life in the very best of ways. Although I’ve been a Christian since I was a little girl and I grew up in the church, this particular study has revealed to me just how much I rely on my own performance and my own actions for my salvation… even though Christ took care of that whole salvation issue once and for all a long, long time ago. Maybe you can relate to me and you, too, rely too much on your performance for your acceptance.

The study is also revealing to me how much I beat myself up for the ways I fall short each day. I know this a mental habit is not from the Lord, because instead of my head being filled with gentle reminders to love better, grow more, and serve more freely, I feel condemned and discouraged by my weaknesses. Romans 8:1 says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” which also tells me that those thoughts that cause me to beat myself up are not from my God. Perhaps you, also, struggle with thoughts like these.

I need passages like Ephesians 2 to wake me up and remind me the reality I get to live in as a daughter of Christ. I love Ephesians 2:13, which says,

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

To me, that’s where this big, beautiful story begins. By God’s grace and because of His loving choice to send His Son for us, we – who were once so incredibly far away from the Lord – have been brought near to Him again.

What a gift.

I also love Ephesians 2:8-9, which says,

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of your works, so that no one may boast.”

“And this is not your own doing…” As I’ve been reading through that Galatians study, I’ve come to realize what a good thing this is. I’m not responsible for my own salvation. God took care of that, and Jesus’ blood covers me because I am in Christ. However, I often still live like it’s my job to save myself. I try to fix myself, I try to handle things on my own, and I try to do and be better by my own strength. I try so hard because I feel like I need to please God and make up for what He gave me so freely.

Ephesians 2 reminds me yet again that God’s love for me and His acceptance of me is in no way dependent on my actions. Not only that, but there’s no way I actually ever could save myself, no matter how hard I tried! The same goes for you… God’s love for you is not dependent on how you act, how well you perform, or how much you succeed. I often have found it helpful to remember that when God looks at me, He doesn’t have to see my sin anymore, because He sees me through Jesus. Perhaps it would help you as well to keep that mental image in your head as you go about your day. I don’t think I can ever express enough how grateful I am that the truths found in Ephesians 2 are my reality as a follower of Jesus, and I hope you are reminded today that this can also be your reality.

What a gift.

The Best Giver

Read through 2 Corinthians 9 today, and I dare you to find someone who is a better giver than our God.

I can’t help but compare the way that I give, love and serve to the way that God gives, loves and serves after reading 2 Corinthians 9 today. Perhaps you did the same as you read through this chapter. The Message version puts 2 Corinthians 9:8-11 in terms that resonate a lot with me:

God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it,

He throws caution to the winds,
giving to the needy in reckless abandon.
His right-living, right-giving ways
never run out, never wear out.

This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.

One of the things that strikes me most about this chapter of Scripture is something that’s mentioned in the last part of the section above. The verse says that what God gives us is something that we can also turn around and give away… how amazing is that? To me, this means that God is such an extravagant giver that He gives us enough for us to be able to be provided for and to STILL give to others out of that overflow.

I’ve seen this play out in my own life on a daily basis, noticing that when I consistently take time to be with the Lord in the morning before my day even starts, I am much more filled up and ready to give to others throughout the day. I try to remind myself that you can’t pour from an empty cup, and that phrase reminds me of 2 Corinthians 9. If we aren’t being filled with the Holy Spirit regularly, God cannot give to us what we need for that day, and in turn, we can’t give out of that overflow to others.

Since we serve a God Who is such an extravagant giver and Who WANTS to give to us abundantly and supply each of our needs, let us remember to we need to do our part and ACCEPT those incredible gifts each day. My hope is that through doing so, we too will become extravagant givers, servants to, and lovers of those God puts in our paths every single day.

Comparison and Gifts

If you’re anything like me, you sometimes struggle with comparing your own unique, God-ordained spiritual gifts to those of other people in your life. It can be so easy to watch other Christians as they use their spiritual gifts and wonder if, just maybe, those individuals are more impactful or blessed than we are.

I often struggle with this myself. As someone who is often too attentive to what others around me are doing and thinking, I find that I’m very quick to notice when someone is better at something than I am. I might watch as someone responds to a situation with much more grace than I think I could have, I might notice how someone decided to serve without being prompted when I would never have thought to do so, or I might watch someone be praised for their more public spiritual gift and become envious. Clearly, I have issues and you all now know just how much I need Jesus. 🙂 But, what I think the enemy is always trying to distract us from is the fact that we each have our own unique giftings, and while we can absolutely always grow and develop in other areas, we each do have certain areas in which we were created to shine.

Read 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 with me…

⁴Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. ⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

While there are many different ways we are gifted as followers of Jesus, 1 Corinthians 12 reminds us that we share the very same God, and thus, our spiritual gifts should draw us closer together instead of causing division among the body of Christ. Going back to the personal examples I shared regarding the ways I struggle with comparing my specific spiritual gifts to others’ spiritual gifts, I have begun to try to handle those exact situations differently.

For example, instead of beating myself up because I know I might not have responded to a situation with as much grace as my friend, I have learned that I can instead pray for an abundance of grace to be given to me in that moment. If I don’t have any grace with myself first, I won’t have any leftover to give to others around me, and I want to be known as a woman of grace.

Instead of feeling frustrated that I never thought to serve those around me in the tangible ways in which my friend instinctually did, I have learned that I can instead use that as a reminder the next time I see a need that is unmet. Since this happened in my own life and I was inspired by the example of a dear friend who has the heart of a complete servant, I have become more servant-hearted and noticed unmet needs. I can choose to surround myself with friends and other believers who provide an amazing example and sharpen me as a Christ follower… undoubtedly, the impact this choice has on my life and on others’ lives is huge.

Lastly, instead of becoming envious because my friend’s spiritual gift is more public than my behind the scenes spiritual gift, I have learned that I can instead choose to praise God for the way He is using that person. I’ve even found that if I build that friend up, perhaps by verbally encouraging them that their spiritual gift is impacting those around them, my envy quickly subsides… because it is not about me anymore- it’s about the kingdom of God being moved forward. The enemy wants to twist and contort our spiritual gifts and use them for evil, but I hope today’s text reminds each of us that we need to be on guard against this.

Friend, you were created beautifully, intricately and purposefully. Be encouraged today to continually be discovering the unique ways God gifted you and growing into that. I’ll end with one of my all time favorite verses on this very topic, Galatians 6:5, which in The Message version says:

^4-5Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

On Our Side

I love Romans 8 for a lot of reasons, but one of the main reasons is the fact that this chapter includes a few of my favorite verses of all time, Romans 8:38-39. To get some context, read Romans 8:31-39 in the Message with me:

^“So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture…”

Some days, I just need to remember that God is on my side. What about you? I think that one of the enemy’s greatest tricks is whispering the lie in our ears that God must actually not mean what He says. In fact, it’s one of the oldest tricks in the book… literally. Genesis 3:1 (emphasis mine) says,

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The line, “did God really say,” gives me chills, because I know I have heard this lie time after time. “Did God really say He loves you, despite the ways you mess up daily?” “Did God really say that life lived Jesus’ way is the fullest kind of life?” “Did God really say it was a big deal if you did that just once?” “Did God really say He’s on your side?”

Yes, He did. And not only did God say that He is on our side, but He means it. Our God is a God who keeps His promises and Whose words are true and able to be trusted. God is on our side, and just like Romans 8 says, with Him on our side, we simply cannot lose.

I want to live from this place: A place of waking up every morning and knowing that not only does the Lord fight for me, but with Jesus, I cannot be separated from that fierce kind of love by anything that comes my way. I want to look at life with complete confidence in this truth. And I want to invite other people into this place of complete peace in the fact that Jesus, our King, is literally fighting for us every single day. And I can’t imagine a better outlook for this normal Thursday morning.

Enough.

“By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.”

I think these words above could be enough of a devotional for me today… wouldn’t you agree? The first verses of Romans 5 completely spoke to my heart as I prepared to write about Romans 5 for this Monday morning, and I can’t help but think that perhaps Jesus wanted to remind us that we are ENOUGH as we start off another new week.

I don’t know about you all, but I certainly do not have my act together 100% of the time. Scratch that… I don’t have my act together MOST of the time, and that fact is becoming more apparent the older I get! You see, for a while, I was really good at pretending that I had everything in my life tied up with a pretty little bow. I was good at saying “no” when my calendar got too full, but I avoided any reasons to let the world know that sometimes my house got messy, I wore yoga pants all day, or that I struggled with something much deeper than yoga pants. In fact, deep need to always be enough and to be perfect even began to impact my relationships. Often, I kept people in my life at arm’s length so that they would never know that I was not, in fact, perfect… that I struggled, that I doubted, that I became frustrated and angry and overwhelmed easier than I cared to admit. In case you were wondering, the very pursuit of being enough on my own left me lonely and feeling like anything BUT enough!

Friends, I’m convinced that the longer we run that race and try to reassure the entire planet that yes, we’re perfect, we’re enough, we have it all together all the time and can balance all the things without dropping the ball, the more we WILL begin to realize how false that is. As a result, we’ll realize our deep need for Jesus, because He is the only way we are enough. Yet, in a world that praises hustle over harmony and in a culture that believes one must be busy to be blessed, running that race to become enough seems to be what’s expected of us.

Let me step into your day really quickly (hopefully, before your busy start to your week begins) and remind you that there is another option available for us as children of God. All we have to do is slow down enough to see it and to take it. Read those first few verses of Romans 5 with me again today:

“By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.”

“…we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus.” Breathe that verse in as a sigh of relief this Monday and picture yourself throwing open those doors to invite God into your week, only to find that He has already thrown open the doors for us, just as those verses above say. This week, you can start off “out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory…” THAT is what Jesus offers to us. With Him, you are enough.

Happy Monday, indeed. 🙂

The Trap of Our Earthly Desires

I have the privilege of writing about Romans 1 today but I really want to focus on verses 18-32. It’s in those 14 verses that you can truly see the repercussions of the fall that happened way back in Genesis when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.

We live in a broken world. Every day the news comes up with new stories about death, hate, poverty, and sickness all over the world. We try to turn it off but we never can. People propose solutions for all of these problems and don’t understand when they don’t work. We are a people who rely on things, machines, and other people to be our saviors in times of need rather than falling on our knees and crying out to God.

We know there is a God but we find ourselves turning towards earthly pleasures because we lack self-discipline. God is knocking at the door but we still have to open it and invite him in. We can’t keep talking to him through the door or only letting him in when we need him. Romans 1:24-25 says,

“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

It says specifically God gave them up. There always will be a choice and you can choose to continually choose early pleasures but will that ever satisfy your soul? God gave them up means to me that he had was trying to protect them for a while but they never turned from their ways. It was never his plan but when these unrighteous people kept doing what they wanted, he had to give them up to their desires. The true king of their lives.

How can we relate to this?

Think about your life. Do you find yourself at church scrolling, checking email, or even napping? Do you find yourself buying new things because you have to have them in your life? Are you doing the minimum to just get into heaven?

These 14 verses show us how easy it is to lose yourself in these early desires. These men and women KNEW God and they still desired these worldly things. It is easy to fall into Satan’s trap so guard your heart. If you lost everything but still have Jesus, could you say that you still had all that you need?

Reflect on your own lives today. Pray that the holy spirit will convict you so that you do not fall into the same trap as these unrighteous people did in these 14 verses.

For Everything, There Is A Season

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says,

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven”

If there’s one verse I’ve been able to resonate with throughout my entire life, this is it. Growing up, the seasons of my life were marked by what grade I was in and what changes were approaching in my life. Even in college, early on after my husband and I started dating, we began to notice how everything in our lives seemed to be so seasonal. For example, we met while we were in college, I was living at home, and we were each on unique degree paths. We lived in that season for a little while. Then came the season where I transferred schools and moved out and onto campus, just five minutes away from each other. We lived in that season for a little while. A few short months later, we got engaged… another new season. Then, four months after our engagement, my husband completely changed degree paths. Six months later, we got married and moved. Four months later, we moved again. (So many new seasons!)

Now that we’re married, I can relate to this verse more than ever before. Our lives seem to always be changing. We’ll complete one goal or stage of life and start the next one. We’ll make plans, and unforeseen circumstances will adjust them. We’ll envision one thing for our year or for the next several months, and then God shuts a door and a new season begins. And here’s the thing, guys: I don’t like change. Change scares me, it shakes me, and it stresses me out.

However, lately, I’ve been forced to realize that God is a God of newness, of change, of growth, and of seasons. For things to grow, things have to change… plain and simple. I simply can’t hold on to my ideas of what I think our life is going to look like, because those things make very lousy gods when the bottom drops out on you and something does change… when another season comes. New seasons are inevitable, and the best thing we can cling to when they come is Jesus, not the thing we didn’t expect to change.

Today, we’re reading Acts 16. I can’t help but wonder what this chapter would have looked like if Paul and Timothy decided they didn’t want to embrace new seasons, changes, and growth in their ministry. Read through Acts 16 with me… Paul started out doing ministry on his own; that’s a season. Then, he added Timothy to the mix… another new season. Then, as you’ll see, the pair stayed only for a season in every single place they preached.

Yet, instead of becoming attached to their current seasons and the work they thought they had to do there, as soon as the Spirit spoke to their hearts, these two got up and were on their way. Goodness, at one point, these guys were convinced they belonged in one place for a season, but God literally would not allow them to travel there! (See Acts 16:7) Some of these seasons were fruitful and full of joy, bringing with them baptisms and entire families converting to the faith. Still other seasons found Paul and Timothy stuck in jail or beaten in front of a crowd. Yet, in each season, God worked. What an incredible example Acts 16 is to a girl like me, who color codes her planner, has goals for her goals, and tries not to panic when her plans for the weekend change!

Friends, I’m realizing so much lately that God has specific work ready for us to do in every season we find ourselves in. Sometimes, the seasons don’t last as long as we’d like them to, think they should, or thought they would. Sometimes, the seasons are hard… we’re stuck in a metaphorical jail for the evening, if you will. Some seasons are full of joy and abundance. But as we see in Acts 16, God’s hand is evident in each and every season. He has plans for each season. And there wasn’t a season of Paul and Timothy’s ministry where the Lord did not do something incredible, come through in a miraculous way, or work through the circumstances of that season.

Truly, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” Be reminded of this today, no matter what season you find yourself in.