When I was at school, we used to get marks for effort. Obviously, assessing other people’s effort is a highly subjective matter, but the idea that lay behind it was good, which was that of encouraging the student. We all need encouragement, which is one reason why words of prophecy often focus here. When people are encouraged to live and walk in the Spirit, prophecy is one of the gifts that will appear. In its simplest form, prophecy comforts, exhorts, and edifies. Amongst other things, it encourages the hearer to stand firm and press on! Whatever we may or may not have attained, in terms of outward and obvious success, the work of God’s kingdom requires that we remain steadfast, always pushing forward in the work that He has entrusted to our hands. As the apostle Paul says, “Brothers and sisters, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). At school, not everyone got a prize, but in God’s eternal kingdom, everyone will be rewarded for the good that they did, even if it was only to give a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul.