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WELCOME New month. New ground. September was about staying in the fight when everything in you wanted to quit. You learned to hold. Now comes the part nobody warns you about. God does not build endurance in you so you can sit on it. ——— THIS IS FOR YOU IF…You have been walking with God long enough to know He is real, and you still think discipleship is for pastors and missionaries and people with a platform. ——— Somewhere along the way we decided the Great Commission was a specialty job. It was given to eleven ordinary men standing on a hillside, most of whom had failed Him within the last six weeks. ——— BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT Every ounce of wisdom God gives you comes with a delivery address, and it is not your own front door. ——— OUR SPRINGBOARD FOR TODAY’S DISCUSSION IS: “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18-20, ESV) ——— JOIN US AS A FAITH PARTNER This month we are talking about handing things off. Faith partners are the reason these episodes keep going out seven days a week, free, to people who will never pay a dime. You carry the load so somebody else can find the truth. That is multiplication too. ——— MAIN MENTORING Look at the order of that passage. Authority first. Assignment second. Jesus does not say go because you are qualified. He says all authority has been given to Him, therefore go. The power is His. The sending is yours. That kills the excuse before you can get it out of your mouth. And notice the verb. Make disciples. Not make converts. Not make an audience. A disciple is somebody who learns to obey, and Jesus spells it out: teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Observe means do. You are not passing along information. You are showing somebody how to live it. Here is where this gets practical. You cannot teach someone to observe what you are not observing. The whole assignment runs through your actual life. Then the promise lands. I am with you always. He knew you would feel unqualified. He knew you would feel too new, too messy, too far behind. So He closed the command with His presence instead of a pep talk. The power is not in you. The obedience is. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, ESV) Jerusalem first. Home. The people who watched you fall apart. Start there. ——— DAILY ACTION Write down one name. One person in your life who is behind you spiritually. Do not build a plan. Just write the name and pray over it today. ——— THE DAILY CHARGE You are not waiting to be qualified. You are already commissioned. Start where you stand, with the authority that belongs to Him. ——— LET’S PRAY Father, thank You for the wisdom You have poured into me. I confess I have been holding it. I have treated Your command like it belonged to somebody more equipped. Today I receive the assignment. Show me the one person You want me to walk with. Give me the courage to open my mouth and the humility to live what I say. Your authority, my obedience. In Jesus’ name, amen. ——— RAK CHAZAK!! Only. Be. Strong!Semper InvictusFaith. Fire. Victory. ——— JOIN US Tomorrow we go after the reason most believers never disciple anybody. It is not fear. It is something quieter, and it is fixable. Subscribe so you catch it. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

WELCOME Last day of endurance month, and this is not a day to rush past. Look back before you look forward, because what happened this month is still working in you. ——— THIS IS FOR YOU IF…You are ready to move on from this month without pausing to notice what it actually changed in you. You are tempted to measure this month only by how hard it was, instead of by what it produced. ——— Paul compared present suffering to future glory in a way that reframes an entire hard season, and it is worth reading slowly on a day like today. ——— BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT What felt heavy this month was light compared to what it is producing in you that you cannot fully see yet. ——— OUR SPRINGBOARD FOR TODAY’S DISCUSSION IS: “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18, ESV) ——— JOIN US AS A FAITH PARTNER Every hard season this ministry has walked through eventually produced something worth the weight. Faith Partners were part of carrying that weight, and they are part of whatever this month produces too. ——— MAIN MENTORING Paul calls his afflictions light and momentary here, and by this point in his ministry Paul had already endured shipwreck, imprisonment, beatings, and betrayal from people close to him. He is not minimizing real suffering or pretending it did not cost him anything. He is comparing it honestly to something so weighty and so lasting that it makes even the hardest season look small next to it. That comparison only actually works if you believe the unseen thing is truly real, not merely a consolation prize handed out for surviving a hard month. Look back at what you cannot fully measure yet from where you are standing today, at the very end of this one. The exhaustion, the silence, the delay, the temptation to quit early, all of it was quietly producing something Paul calls an eternal weight of glory, not just a personal lesson filed away for later. You are not the same person who started this month wondering whether you could actually make it through. You already know you can, because you just did exactly that. ——— DAILY ACTION Write one sentence naming what endurance month actually built in you, something specific you can point to. Thank God for it, and keep that sentence somewhere you will see it again. ——— THE DAILY CHARGE What felt heavy is producing weight of a different kind. Carry what you learned into whatever season comes next. ——— LET’S PRAY Father, this month has been heavy, and I have wondered more than once whether it was worth it. Thank You that You called it light and momentary compared to what it is producing in me, something eternal I cannot fully see yet. I am not the same person who started this month. Carry what You built in me forward into whatever comes next. In Jesus’ name, amen. ——— RAK CHAZAK!! Only. Be. Strong!Semper InvictusFaith. Fire. Victory. ——— JOIN US Endurance month is complete, and what it built in you is not. Subscribe so you do not miss what comes next, and send this final episode to someone who endured this month right alongside you. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

WELCOME Day two of the final stretch, and this one turns your eyes off yourself for a moment. What you have carried this month was never meant to stop with you. ——— THIS IS FOR YOU IF…You have grown through something hard this month and you have not yet thought about who else needs to hear what you learned. You assume your struggle was private and personal, with no purpose beyond your own growth. ——— Paul told Timothy to take what he had learned and immediately look for the next person to give it to, not to keep it as a private possession. ——— BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT What you learned in the hard season was never just for you. It was also for whoever comes next. ——— OUR SPRINGBOARD FOR TODAY’S DISCUSSION IS: “And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2, ESV) ——— JOIN US AS A FAITH PARTNER This teaching exists because someone once handed truth forward instead of keeping it to themselves. Faith Partners help make sure that handing forward never stops with one generation. ——— MAIN MENTORING Paul names four generations in a single sentence without wasting a word. Himself, Timothy, faithful men, and others still waiting further down the line. He is not asking Timothy to simply survive what he learned and quietly keep it. He is asking him to multiply it on purpose, deliberately, before the knowledge stops moving with him. Endurance that stays private dies with the person who endured it, no matter how hard-won it was. Endurance that gets handed forward outlives that one person by decades, sometimes generations. Moses gave the same instruction to an entire nation standing at the edge of uncertain territory they had never seen before. “These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7, ESV). Diligently, in every ordinary moment of daily life, not saved carefully for a formal occasion or a special sermon. The handing forward was always meant to be constant, woven naturally into normal conversation as it happened. ——— DAILY ACTION Name one specific person who needs what you learned about endurance this month. Reach out to them today and tell them one true thing you discovered. ——— THE DAILY CHARGE Do not keep this to yourself. What God built in you this month was always meant to travel further than you. ——— LET’S PRAY Father, I have treated what I learned this month like something private, and I know it was never meant to stop with me. Like Paul with Timothy, show me who is next in line to receive what You taught me. Give me the diligence Moses described, weaving this truth into ordinary conversation, not saving it for a special occasion. Let this endurance outlive me in someone else’s life. In Jesus’ name, amen. ——— RAK CHAZAK!! Only. Be. Strong!Semper InvictusFaith. Fire. Victory. ——— JOIN US Tomorrow we close endurance month for good. Subscribe so you catch it, and send today’s episode to the person you just thought of while listening. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

WELCOME The final stretch of endurance month starts here, and this is a good place to think honestly about finishing. Not finishing everything possible. Finishing what was actually yours to carry. ——— THIS IS FOR YOU IF…You are carrying guilt over things you did not get to this month, comparing your finish line to someone else’s. You are close to the end of something and tempted to add more to it instead of simply completing what you already started. ——— Jesus spoke about His own finished work the night before the cross, and He did not describe accomplishing everything imaginable. He described completing His assignment. ——— BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT Finishing does not mean doing everything. It means completing what was actually given to you. ——— OUR SPRINGBOARD FOR TODAY’S DISCUSSION IS: “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” (John 17:4, ESV) ——— JOIN US AS A FAITH PARTNER This ministry has learned to finish assignments instead of chasing every possible opportunity. Faith Partners help make that kind of focused finishing sustainable, season after season. ——— MAIN MENTORING Jesus did not heal every sick person in Israel during His ministry, and He did not preach in every single town within reach. He finished exactly what the Father gave Him to do, no more and no less than that specific assignment, and He called that complete without apology. There is real freedom hiding in that example for you today. Your endurance this month was never measured against everyone else’s assignment or everyone else’s finish line. It was measured against what God specifically gave you to carry, nothing added and nothing borrowed from someone else’s list. Paul understood this same freedom near the very end of his own long ministry. “One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14, ESV). Notice he says one thing, not several scattered things pulling him in different directions. He let go of what was behind him, including things he genuinely did not finish, and pressed forward only toward what was actually his to pursue in this next stretch. ——— DAILY ACTION Name one thing from this month you can now consider finished, even if it looks smaller than you wanted. Thank God specifically for that completion today. ——— THE DAILY CHARGE Finish what was given to you. Let go of what was never yours to carry. ——— LET’S PRAY Father, I have measured my finish against assignments that were never mine to complete. Like Jesus, let me say I accomplished the work You actually gave me. Help me release what I did not get to and hold onto what I did finish with gratitude instead of guilt. One thing I do, pressing forward toward what is still ahead. In Jesus’ name, amen. ——— RAK CHAZAK!! Only. Be. Strong!Semper InvictusFaith. Fire. Victory. ——— JOIN US Tomorrow we talk about handing what you have learned this month to someone else. Subscribe so you catch it, and send today’s episode to someone carrying guilt over an unfinished list. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

BASED ON: “In quietness and trust shall be your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15, ESV) My child, This week I watched you slow down, and I want you to know that pleased Me more than any burst of frantic effort ever could have. You have spent years believing speed was the same thing as faithfulness. I have been gently teaching you otherwise. The rhythms you kept this week, the pace you protected, the rest you finally allowed yourself without guilt attached to it, that was not weakness. That was you finally building the way I actually built you to last. I do not need you to sprint for Me. I never did. I need you present, day after day, the way Daniel was present on his knees whether the world around him was calm or falling apart. I need you steady, the way a tree by a stream is steady, not because it works harder than other trees but because its roots go somewhere deep enough to hold. You guarded your heart a little more carefully this week, and I noticed. You loved someone past the feeling that started it, and I noticed that too. Both of those things are decades in the making, not overnight accomplishments, and you are further along in both than you think you are. I am not building you for one dramatic season. I am building you for a whole life, and a whole life requires a pace you can actually keep. Quiet and trust are not lesser strategies. They have been My strategy for you the entire time, even when it looked like nothing was happening. Rest today. Tomorrow the pace continues, and I will be right there setting it with you, the same way I have been all along. With everlasting faithfulness,Your Father ——— JOIN US Come back tomorrow as the final stretch of endurance month begins. Subscribe so you don’t miss it, and if this letter met you today, pass it to someone learning to trade hurry for a pace that lasts. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

WELCOME Last teaching day of week four, and this pulls everything this week together. The pace that actually finishes is quieter than most people expect it to be. ——— THIS IS FOR YOU IF…You have been measuring strength by how much you are doing, and you are exhausted from equating busyness with faithfulness. You want a strategy for the rest of this season that does not require more hustle than you have left to give. ——— Isaiah told a nation under real threat something that sounded like weakness at the time and turned out to be their actual strength. ——— BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT Quietness and trust are not the absence of a plan. They are the plan. ——— OUR SPRINGBOARD FOR TODAY’S DISCUSSION IS: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15, ESV) ——— JOIN US AS A FAITH PARTNER This ministry’s strength has never come from constant hustle, but from a steady trust that shows up in quieter ways too. Faith Partners are part of that quiet strength, sustaining the work without demanding it prove itself through noise. ——— MAIN MENTORING Israel wanted military alliances and visible, immediate action in the face of a real and pressing threat. God offered them something that looked like the exact opposite of strength on paper, returning, resting, quietness, and trust instead of a show of force. They rejected it and chased frantic solutions of their own making instead, and it went badly for them in the end. The strength God offered was entirely real. They simply did not recognize it as strength because it did not look like the kind they were used to measuring and admiring. Habakkuk received a vision he had to wait on without any knowledge of when it would actually come to pass. “For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end, it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay” (Habakkuk 2:3, ESV). Waiting quietly for an appointed time is not passive resignation or giving up on the outcome. It is active trust that refuses to force an outcome into being before it is actually ready to arrive. ——— DAILY ACTION Identify one place you have been substituting frantic effort for quiet trust. Choose stillness there today, and tell God directly that you are trusting Him with the outcome. ——— THE DAILY CHARGE Quiet is not quitting. It may be the strongest thing you do all week. ——— LET’S PRAY Father, I have equated busyness with faithfulness for too long, and I am tired from a strength that was never actually strength at all. Teach me the quiet and trust Isaiah described, the kind that saves instead of exhausts. Like Habakkuk, help me wait for the appointed time without forcing it early. My strength this week is Your quiet, not my noise. In Jesus’ name, amen. ——— RAK CHAZAK!! Only. Be. Strong!Semper InvictusFaith. Fire. Victory. ——— JOIN US Tomorrow is Sunday, and we shift into A Love Letter From God. Subscribe so you catch it, and send today’s episode to someone who needs permission to be quiet instead of frantic. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

WELCOME Day five of week four, and this might be the hardest lesson for anyone determined to finish something. Sometimes the most obedient thing you can do is stop for a while. ——— THIS IS FOR YOU IF…You feel guilty resting because it seems like giving up ground you cannot afford to lose in this season. You have been running without a real break for so long that you cannot remember what rested actually feels like. ——— God built rest into creation itself before anyone had done anything wrong that required recovering from, and Jesus modeled it under real demand for His time. ——— BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT Rest is not a reward for finishing. It is part of how you are built to keep going. ——— OUR SPRINGBOARD FOR TODAY’S DISCUSSION IS: “And he said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” (Mark 6:31, ESV) ——— JOIN US AS A FAITH PARTNER This ministry builds rest into its own rhythm too, not as a luxury but as a necessity. Faith Partners help make that rest possible instead of forcing burnout as the cost of staying faithful. ——— MAIN MENTORING Jesus says this to His disciples right after they had just returned from an exhausting, genuinely fruitful ministry trip, with crowds still pressing in on every side demanding more of their time and attention. He does not tell them to push through the demand to prove how committed they are. He pulls them away deliberately and on purpose, because He knows unrest eventually breaks even the most willing servant, regardless of how good or urgent the cause happens to be. The pattern goes all the way back to the very beginning of everything. “On the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done” (Genesis 2:2, ESV). God rested not because He was tired or depleted, but because He was establishing a rhythm for everyone who would come after Him to live inside of. Rest was written into creation before sin ever entered the picture at all, which means it was never a consequence of weakness or failure. It was always part of the original design, built in from the start. ——— DAILY ACTION Schedule one real block of rest this week, not distraction, actual rest. Protect it the same way you would protect any other obedience God has asked of you. ——— THE DAILY CHARGE Rest is not quitting. It is how you are built to keep going without breaking. ——— LET’S PRAY Father, I have treated rest like a failure instead of a gift You built into creation itself. Teach me to rest the way Jesus pulled His disciples away, not as an afterthought but as an act of obedience. Free me from the guilt that keeps me running past what I was built to sustain. Let rest be part of how I endure, not proof that I have stopped enduring. In Jesus’ name, amen. ——— RAK CHAZAK!! Only. Be. Strong!Semper InvictusFaith. Fire. Victory. ——— JOIN US Tomorrow we close out week four and look back at the pace it has built in you. Subscribe so you catch it, and send today’s episode to someone who feels guilty for needing rest right now. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

WELCOME Day four of week four, and this one is about the people in your life, the marriages, friendships, and family bonds that also require endurance, not just a one-time decision to love someone. ——— THIS IS FOR YOU IF…You are in a relationship that has lost the spark it started with, and you are wondering if that means something is wrong. You are tempted to walk away from a commitment because the feeling that once made it easy has faded. ——— Ruth made a commitment to Naomi that had nothing left in it for her personally, and she kept it anyway, becoming a picture of what real loyalty looks like. ——— BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT Real love is proven by what it does after the feeling leaves, not by how strong the feeling was at the start. ——— OUR SPRINGBOARD FOR TODAY’S DISCUSSION IS: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:7-8, ESV) ——— JOIN US AS A FAITH PARTNER Long-term relationships sustain this ministry too, partnerships built on years, not a single enthusiastic season. Faith Partners are part of that same long obedience, staying committed past the initial excitement. ——— MAIN MENTORING Ruth had every reasonable excuse available to leave Naomi behind and start fresh somewhere easier. Her husband had died, she was still young enough to remarry into a new family, and Naomi herself told her plainly to go back to her own people and her own gods. Ruth stayed anyway, saying “where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge” (Ruth 1:16, ESV). Nothing about that decision was emotional convenience or a leftover feeling carrying her forward. It was loyalty chosen deliberately, after any feeling that might have made it easy was already long gone. Paul’s description of love in Corinthians reads less like poetry written for a wedding and more like a job description built for the long haul ahead. Bears, believes, hopes, endures, four verbs describing sustained action over time, not a single burst of feeling that fades by winter. Love never ends is not a statement about how it feels forever, moment to moment. It is a statement about what it keeps doing regardless of feeling, year after year, long after the spark has quieted. ——— DAILY ACTION Name one relationship where the feeling has faded but the commitment remains. Do one specific act of loyalty toward that person today, whether you feel like it or not. ——— THE DAILY CHARGE Stay past the feeling. That is where real love actually proves itself. ——— LET’S PRAY Father, I have measured my relationships by how they feel instead of by the loyalty You have called me to. Thank You for Ruth’s example, choosing to stay when leaving would have been easier and more reasonable. Teach me to love the way You describe it, bearing, believing, hoping, and enduring, long after the initial feeling has quieted down. In Jesus’ name, amen. ——— RAK CHAZAK!! Only. Be. Strong!Semper InvictusFaith. Fire. Victory. ——— JOIN US Tomorrow we talk about rest as part of endurance, not the opposite of it. Subscribe so you catch it, and send today’s episode to someone staying loyal in a relationship that has lost its spark. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

WELCOME Day three of week four, and this one is about what actually needs guarding if you want to last. It is not your schedule. It is your heart. ——— THIS IS FOR YOU IF…You have kept up the outward habits this month but noticed something hardening or growing bitter underneath them. You are managing your actions well but neglecting what is actually shaping those actions from the inside. ——— Solomon tells his son to guard one thing above everything else, and it is not behavior. It is the source behavior comes from. ——— BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT You can manage your actions for a while on willpower alone. Only a guarded heart sustains them for years. ——— OUR SPRINGBOARD FOR TODAY’S DISCUSSION IS: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23, ESV) ——— JOIN US AS A FAITH PARTNER This ministry protects the heart behind the work, not just the output. Faith Partners help create space for that kind of guarding to actually happen instead of getting sacrificed to busyness. ——— MAIN MENTORING Solomon does not tell his son to guard his schedule, his reputation, or even his actions directly, though all of those matter too. He says guard your heart above everything else, because everything else in a person’s life eventually flows from that one hidden source. You can force the right actions for a while through sheer discipline and gritted teeth, but if the heart underneath goes unguarded long enough, bitterness, resentment, or a quiet numbness will eventually leak into everything those actions were supposed to protect and represent. Jesus said something similar about the source producing whatever fruit eventually shows. “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45, ESV). Whatever is actually stored in the heart eventually comes out into the open, whether you intend it to or not, whether you are managing it well on the surface or not. A pace you can hold for decades requires tending that storehouse regularly and honestly, not just managing what comes out of it in front of other people. ——— DAILY ACTION Ask yourself honestly what has been accumulating in your heart this month, bitterness, gratitude, resentment, or peace. Bring whatever you find to God specifically in prayer today. ——— THE DAILY CHARGE Guard the source, not just the output. Everything you do for decades flows from what you protect today. ——— LET’S PRAY Father, I have been managing my actions while neglecting my heart, and I know that will not hold for long. Show me honestly what has been accumulating in me this month. Guard my heart with Your vigilance where mine has failed. Let what flows out of me come from a well You are keeping clean, not one I have let go untended. In Jesus’ name, amen. ——— RAK CHAZAK!! Only. Be. Strong!Semper InvictusFaith. Fire. Victory. ——— JOIN US Tomorrow we talk about long obedience inside relationships, the ones that ask for endurance too. Subscribe so you catch it, and send today’s episode to someone managing behavior while their heart quietly hardens. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

WELCOME Day two of week four, and this one is for the sprinters, the people who go hard for a week and then collapse for two. Endurance asks for a different kind of pace. ——— THIS IS FOR YOU IF…You have a pattern of going all in for a short burst and then crashing, unable to sustain the intensity you started with. You are tempted to rush this season because slow progress feels like failure to you. ——— Solomon contrasts two kinds of effort in one proverb, and only one of them actually leads somewhere good. ——— BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT Hasty produces poverty. Diligent produces abundance. The difference is pace, not effort. ——— OUR SPRINGBOARD FOR TODAY’S DISCUSSION IS: “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” (Proverbs 21:5, ESV) ——— JOIN US AS A FAITH PARTNER This ministry grew through years of steady, diligent work, not one dramatic sprint. Faith Partners are part of that same sustainable pace, giving consistently rather than in one hasty burst. ——— MAIN MENTORING The word diligent in this proverb does not describe intensity or a burst of impressive effort. It describes steady, sustained work applied consistently over time, without quitting early and without overreaching past what the day actually requires. Hasty, by contrast, describes someone trying to force an outcome faster than it can naturally arrive, and Solomon says plainly where that path leads. Not failure from a lack of effort, but poverty that comes from the wrong kind of effort altogether, spent in the wrong rhythm. Ecclesiastes puts the same idea even more plainly. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, ESV). A farmer does not plant and harvest on the same afternoon no matter how badly he wants the crop sitting in his barn already. He works at the pace the season actually allows, trusting the process instead of rushing straight past it toward the result. Your endurance works exactly the same way. There is a pace this season allows, and forcing a faster one rarely gets you there sooner. It usually just gets you there broken. ——— DAILY ACTION Name one place you have been rushing that needs a steadier pace instead. Slow it down deliberately today, even if it feels uncomfortable to do less. ——— THE DAILY CHARGE Diligence beats hurry every time. Find the pace you can actually sustain and stay there. ——— LET’S PRAY Father, I have confused hurry with faithfulness, and hasty effort with real diligence. Teach me the steady pace that leads to abundance instead of the rushed one that leads to poverty. Help me trust Your seasons instead of forcing my own timeline onto them. Give me a pace I can actually sustain to the finish. In Jesus’ name, amen. ——— RAK CHAZAK!! Only. Be. Strong!Semper InvictusFaith. Fire. Victory. ——— JOIN US Tomorrow we talk about guarding your heart for the long haul. Subscribe so you catch it, and send today’s episode to someone stuck in a sprint-and-crash cycle right now. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

WELCOME Week four begins, and this stretch is about pace, not intensity. Building something that can hold for decades starts with what you do on days you feel nothing at all. ——— THIS IS FOR YOU IF…You have relied on motivation to keep your spiritual habits going, and you are noticing how unreliable that fuel actually is. You want a faith that survives a bad month, not just a good week. ——— Daniel kept a habit that had nothing to do with how he felt that day, and it is what carried him through a den of lions. ——— BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT Rhythm does not ask how you feel. It just asks you to show up again. ——— OUR SPRINGBOARD FOR TODAY’S DISCUSSION IS: “He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.” (Daniel 6:10, ESV) ——— JOIN US AS A FAITH PARTNER This ministry runs on a daily rhythm too, not a mood. Faith Partners help keep that rhythm unbroken, day after day, whether it feels exciting that week or not. ——— MAIN MENTORING Notice the phrase as he had done previously, tucked right into the middle of the crisis. Daniel’s prayer habit was not a reaction to the death decree suddenly issued against him. It was already his established pattern, so consistent and so well known that his enemies knew exactly when and where to find him praying without having to guess. That consistency, built long before the crisis ever arrived, is what he had left to stand on when everything else in his world turned against him overnight. The psalmist describes the same kind of person in a different image. “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither” (Psalm 1:2-3, ESV). Notice it says day and night, not just the days that feel spiritually meaningful or emotionally full. The fruit shows up in season precisely because the roots were fed on every ordinary day leading up to it, including the flat ones. ——— DAILY ACTION Name one spiritual habit you have let mood decide instead of rhythm. Do it today regardless of how you feel, the way Daniel did. ——— THE DAILY CHARGE Build what you can repeat, not just what you can feel. Repetition is what survives the hard seasons. ——— LET’S PRAY Father, I have let my feelings decide too often whether I show up for You. Teach me the kind of consistency Daniel had, the habit that does not bend to circumstance. Plant me like the tree by the water, rooted in a rhythm that holds in every season, not just the easy ones. In Jesus’ name, amen. ——— RAK CHAZAK!! Only. Be. Strong!Semper InvictusFaith. Fire. Victory. ——— JOIN US Tomorrow we talk about pacing yourself for the long haul instead of sprinting toward burnout. Subscribe so you catch it, and send today’s episode to someone who needs a rhythm stronger than their mood. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

BASED ON: “He knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.” (Job 23:10, ESV) ——— My child, This week you asked Me where I was, more than once. I heard every version of that question, even the ones you never said out loud. You have been exhausted, and some days you let exhaustion tell you things about yourself that were not true. I want you to know I did not believe a single one of those lies, even when you did for a moment. I saw the real you underneath the tired, and I was not disappointed in what I saw. You waited on something this week that still has not come, and the waiting has started to feel like a no I never actually gave. I have not forgotten what I promised you. Delay has never once meant denial in My hands, even when it feels that way from where you are standing. I am still working on more than you can see, more people and more timing than just your own. You felt the silence too, the kind that made you wonder if I had left the room. I was not gone. I was doing something in you too deep for words to interrupt, the way gold does not announce itself while it is still in the fire. You will see it. Not yet, but you will. You were tempted to quit this week, right when you were closer than you knew. I saw that moment. I was not worried, because I already know how this ends, and it does not end with you walking away. Rest today. You have carried more than you realize, and you carried it further than you think. I was with you in the silence the whole time, and I am not leaving now. With everlasting faithfulness,Your Father ——— JOIN US Come back tomorrow as week four begins. Subscribe so you don’t miss it, and if this letter met you where you are, pass it to someone carrying a silence of their own. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

WELCOME Last teaching day of week three, and this is a good place to stop and count something other than the days left. Count what has already held. ——— THIS IS FOR YOU IF…You feel like you have not made any real progress this month, even though you are still here and still showing up. You need proof before you can believe you are actually being changed by this season. ——— Paul tells the Corinthians that transformation happens gradually, through a process most people cannot see happening to themselves in real time. ——— BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT You will not see the change while it is happening. You will only see it when you look back. ——— OUR SPRINGBOARD FOR TODAY’S DISCUSSION IS: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Corinthians 3:18, ESV) ——— JOIN US AS A FAITH PARTNER Ministries change slowly too, one faithful season stacked on another, rarely visible while it is actually happening. Faith Partners are investing in transformation they will not see finished right away either. ——— MAIN MENTORING Paul describes transformation as gradual here, degree by degree, not sudden and not obvious from the inside while it is actually happening to you day by day. Nobody watching a candle melt sees it shrink minute by minute in real time. They only notice the difference when they compare it to how it looked an hour earlier. Three weeks into endurance month, you are the same way. The change has been real the entire time, even though you could not watch it happening as it happened. Peter lists a similar progression and ends it with a promise worth holding onto today. “Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge” (2 Peter 1:5, ESV), ending several verses later with the promise that these qualities keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful (2 Peter 1:8, ESV). Growth here is additive and cumulative, one quality building on top of the last one, and it quietly produces fruit you may not notice at all until it is already fully there in front of you. ——— DAILY ACTION Write down one specific way you have changed since September 1st, something concrete, not a feeling. Thank God for that change by name. ——— THE DAILY CHARGE The glory is not sudden. It is degree by degree, and you are further along than today’s mood wants you to believe. ——— LET’S PRAY Father, I have been measuring this month by how I feel today instead of by what has actually changed in me. Thank You that transformation happens degree by degree, even when I cannot see it happening. Show me what You have already done in these three weeks. Keep changing me into the image of Your glory, one degree at a time, whether I notice it today or not. In Jesus’ name, amen. ——— RAK CHAZAK!! Only. Be. Strong!Semper InvictusFaith. Fire. Victory. ——— JOIN US Tomorrow is Sunday, and we shift into A Love Letter From God. Subscribe so you catch it, and send today’s episode to someone who needs to see how far they have already come. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

WELCOME Day five of week three, and this one is for the stretch that comes down to the wire, when you have already given most of what you had and there is still ground left to cover. ——— THIS IS FOR YOU IF…You feel like you are running on fumes and the finish line has not shown up yet, even though you have already done the hard part. You are afraid your strength will run out before the thing you are enduring actually ends. ——— Paul wrote from a jail cell near the actual end of his life, and he described his own finish in words worth borrowing for yours. ——— BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT You do not need a reserve tank you do not have. You need to keep pointing the tank you do have in the right direction. ——— OUR SPRINGBOARD FOR TODAY’S DISCUSSION IS: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7, ESV) ——— JOIN US AS A FAITH PARTNER This ministry has had seasons that came down to the wire financially and otherwise. Faith Partners are often the reason the finish line got crossed instead of missed. ——— MAIN MENTORING Paul writes this from prison, near execution, with nothing left to prove and nothing left to gain from overstating what actually happened. He does not say he finished strong or finished impressively or finished without struggle. He says simply that he finished, and he kept the faith along the way, which is a lower bar than most people imagine and a far harder one to actually clear in real life. Fighting the good fight was never about winning every single round of it. It was about staying in the fight until the bell finally rang. The writer of Hebrews describes the same finish from a slightly different angle. “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1, ESV). Endurance is the entire instruction for the last mile, not speed, not some new strength you do not currently have, not a reserve you were supposed to have saved earlier and forgot to. Just endurance, one more step taken with whatever is left in you right now, today, in this exact mile. ——— DAILY ACTION Name the thing that feels closest to your own finish line right now. Do the smallest next step toward it today, even if it feels too small to matter. ——— THE DAILY CHARGE You do not need a full tank to finish. You need to keep moving with what is already in it. ——— LET’S PRAY Father, I am running low and the finish line has not appeared yet, and I am afraid I will run out before I get there. Thank You that Paul finished this race without needing more than faithfulness to the end. Give me endurance for today’s mile, not the whole race at once. I will keep the faith, one step at a time, with whatever strength You give me right now. In Jesus’ name, amen. ——— RAK CHAZAK!! Only. Be. Strong!Semper InvictusFaith. Fire. Victory. ——— JOIN US Tomorrow we close out week three. Subscribe so you catch it, and send today’s episode to someone running on fumes near their own finish line right now. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe

WELCOME Day four of week three, and here is something worth knowing before you feel it. The urge to quit rarely arrives when the finish is far away. It usually shows up right before you would have made it. ——— THIS IS FOR YOU IF…You have felt a sudden, strong urge to quit something lately, even though no new problem has come up. You have quit things before, only to realize you walked away just before they were about to turn around. Now you are worried you may be about to repeat that same pattern. ——— The Israelites stood at the edge of the Red Sea, trapped between the water and an army, and quitting looked like the only sane option available. ——— BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT The moment quitting looks most reasonable is often the moment right before God moves. ——— OUR SPRINGBOARD FOR TODAY’S DISCUSSION IS: “Stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. The Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.” (Exodus 14:13, ESV) ——— JOIN US AS A FAITH PARTNER There have been moments in this ministry that looked like the end right before they turned into the beginning of something bigger. Faith Partners are part of what made standing firm through those moments possible. ——— MAIN MENTORING The Israelites were not being irrational when they panicked at the edge of that water. Every visible fact in front of them supported quitting right there on the spot. Water ahead of them, an army closing in behind, no path forward anyone could actually see with their own eyes. Moses does not tell them the danger is imaginary or exaggerated. He tells them to stand firm and watch what God does with a situation that has no human solution left in it at all. The very army they were terrified of that morning, they would never see again after that single day. James connects this directly to the crown waiting on the other side of a finished trial, not before it. “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12, ESV). The crown comes after standing the test, never before it, which means the test right before the crown will almost always feel like the hardest one you have faced yet. Whatever is making you want to quit today may be standing exactly where the sea was about to part. ——— DAILY ACTION Name the thing you feel most tempted to quit right now. Write down one reason to stand firm today instead of walking away, and read it before you go to bed tonight. ——— THE DAILY CHARGE Do not read the strength of the temptation as a sign to quit. Read it as a sign you are close. ——— LET’S PRAY Father, the urge to quit has felt stronger lately, and I have been treating it like evidence I should walk away. Help me stand firm the way the Israelites did at the sea, even when every visible fact argues for panic. Let me see Your salvation worked out today in the thing I am most tempted to abandon. I will not quit this close to what You are about to do. In Jesus’ name, amen. ——— RAK CHAZAK!! Only. Be. Strong!Semper InvictusFaith. Fire. Victory. ——— JOIN US Tomorrow we close week three by looking at how to hold steady the last mile. Subscribe so you catch it, and send today’s episode to someone standing at their own Red Sea moment right now. My Reasons To Believe is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe