Welcome to the Trenches

I like to refer to ministry, or at least the ministry I find myself in, as the trenches.

Why?

Because it feels like I’m in the trenches of an awful war, and well I guess that is exactly where we are. No matter what we think, we are in a war. And the war is for people.

We are battling so much. We are battling negative mindsets, drugs, poverty, backgrounds, culture, preconceived ideas, prejudice, racism, sexism, and many other things that aren’t actual “things.” The saddest part is, their aren’t enough warriors, and the ones that are out here, are tired.

I have spent the last week questioning what I’m even doing. I had a horrible week two weeks ago, and felt like I wasn’t making any difference at all. I honestly felt like I had missed my calling, and was in the complete wrong field. I wondered if anything I was doing was making a difference at all to anyone I was supposed to be helping. It seemed that negative mindsets, low self-esteem, drugs, and poverty were winning the battle, and I was so tired.

But Jesus knows my struggle. He knows exactly how I feel because its exactly how He feels. I finally broke down on a Sunday and was just really honest with Him about where I was, and I received the most beautiful reminder.

Galatians 6:9-10 “So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.”

Isaiah 55:11 “It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”

See in the midst of the trenches, when it’s hard, and gritty, and you want to give up. I can rest in the fact that Jesus will accomplish all He sets out to accomplish. I can rest in the fact that I will see a harvest for all the work I am doing in His name. I can rest in the fact that He will take care of me, and through Him I can find rest for my soul.

Jesus knows what we are fighting, but He also knows how to overcome. He also knows that he beat all of this on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, He didn’t just die to save us from hell. He died to defeat drugs, sexism, racism, poverty, cancer, sickness, negative mind sets, low self-esteem, and all of the negative things we fight here in the trenches. So the conclusion is that I can rest in the fact that in these trenches we do not fight FOR victory, we fight FROM victory.

Rest easy my friends, Jesus already won this battle.

xoxo

Katie