June 24--3 Signs That Your Faith Is Thriving

In today's episode, I tell a true-life story in which I clearly failed to exhibit all 3 of the signs I write about.  Knowing what the signs are and finding them popping up in your life are both important--but aren’t necessarily a package deal.  See what you think of 2 Kings 6-7, Acts 16:1-15, Psalm 142, and Proverbs 17:23-24.

Click here for the written post of today's episode.

Eve reads her Bible journal aloud on this episode.

Click here for the FREE Yearly Bible Reading Plan she uses.  

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

June twenty four. Three signs that your faith is thriving. I won't be reading the scripture references. For those, please check the written post. I lost my mind in Richmond, Kentucky. It happened when I needed a pit stop and pulled off the highway, started the pump at the Gulf Station, and went inside. I was driving home from Cincinnati where I'd been for the weekend for our daughter's art show opening. When I got back to my car five minutes later, the pump was confounding. It registered seventy five dollars for twenty two point seven three gallons, an amount my car couldn't hold even on flat empty, which it wasn't. I checked my gas gauge. It registered near empty. Confusion became alarm as I realized I've been robbed, and I stomped inside to tell the attendant. He wasn't interested, sympathetic, nor English speaking, which was an unfortunate combination, as I was left to my own conclusions. Livid, I sped across the road where I got fifteen gallons, then took my new receipt to show the golf guy, who shrugged his shoulders to say it wasn't his problem. Don't you see the issue? I complained, and rather loudly. I couldn't have put another fifteen gallons in a tank that was already full. Somebody charged me seventy five dollars for gas I didn't get. My volume was rising, and nobody could have pumped twenty three gallons in the few minutes I spent inside. So the somebody who's ripping me off has got to be you. Golf Guy phoned somebody else and handed me the phone, along with a duplicate receipt which I ignored. Maybe your gas gauge isn't working, the low voice suggested calmly. Really? And my gas tank too? How could I put more gas in a tank that was supposedly overflowing? Listen, unless I get my seventy five bucks back right this minute, I'm posting a review that says crooks are in cahoots here. This last part I must have yelled. People I didn't know had started staring. The voice said we might have a conversation if I could keep it professional, but if I was going to threaten him, well then just go ahead, post it. So I did. Being the victim of a crime, I felt more than justified. What's more I stopped six customers at the pumps before they started up, who listened to my story and drove off. One young father said he'd heard me inside and decided this was definitely not the environment he wanted his kids in. I decided he must be referring to the thieving going down. I went back inside and bragged loudly that I'd run off six paying customers, and it was then when I saw my reflection in the door on my way out, hair and eyes as wild as Doc Brown. I wasn't so sure what he was referring to after that. Back on I seventy five, I phoned the local police station to alert them of the hotbed of criminal activity in town. Officer Miller listened kindly and began taking down details, but when I got to the part about swiping my card, he stopped me. Are you certain you turned on the gas pump? And just like that, this little question opened up wide enough to swallow me. No, actually, I'm not certain. I'm capable of anything on this side of menopause. I'll look at my credit card statement online. Can you call me right back? I pulled to the shoulder where the truth began crashing like those waves that tumbled me when I was seven and couldn't find the way out of. Turned out there was no charge on my credit card. What's more the time of sale on the golf receipt was twenty five minutes earlier than my arrival time, but the clincher clue I hadn't seen before was suddenly in plain sight. The last four digits of the card were not mine. I was undone. I'd very loudly and publicly lost my salvation for my own stupidity. I'd let somebody else's twenty two point seventy three gallons take away my joy and sanity. Embarrassed I thanked the officer and unposted my review. I plan to write a letter of apology to the station manager after I finish this piece of humble pie I'm choking down with you. This story of faith failing couldn't be more perfectly timed, happening as it did yesterday before reading today's passages. Sometimes I wish I was a neater, tidier Christian, or at the least one who didn't feel compelled to share how obviously I keep needing Jesus.

2 Kings 6-7

SPEAKER_00 4:32

The Old Testament chapters are Second Kings six to seven. Word was he knew what the king of Aram said in his bedroom, at least that was what the king's advisors told him when he accused them of leaking his whereabouts to Israel, but God was the snitch who told Elisha what the king was doing, and Elisha told the king of Israel, so that Aram's plans against Israel were foiled again. Understandably the king was furious, to retaliate, he sent troops to surround Elisha one night, so that when Elisha's servant Gehazi got up the next morning, he saw Aramean horses and chariots everywhere he looked. Elisha said not to be afraid, because quote, there are more on our side than on their side, end quote, and he asked God to open Gehazi's eyes to see what wasn't in plain sight. And suddenly he saw the army of God himself with the whole mountainside full of flaming chariots and horses. Elisha prayed that the Arameans be blinded, and when they were he led them straight into Samaria, which was the capital of Israel, and he advised the king to feed them like honored guests which he did. And after this Aram didn't bother Israel anymore, well, until one day when they did. Eventually Aram came back and lay siege to Samaria, and this time they brought with them a famine so severe that mothers ate their own children. Israel's king was beside himself over the plight of his people, and he blamed God and Elisha, his prophet by proxy. And the king of Israel plotted to kill Elisha to get even, but Elisha commanded him to listen to God's word instead, which was this, within twenty four hours food would be plentiful again. During the night lepers went to the Aramean camp to beg for mercy, hoping to be killed or fed. They were so hungry it didn't much matter which, but they found that the entire army had fled. God spooked them with sounds of a mighty army on the march against them, and they left all food, clothing, and gold behind as they ran for their lives. The lepers alerted their king, and all Israel plundered the Aramean tents, just as God had said, the very next day there was plenty of everything to eat, and just outside their city gates. The king's attendant who'd scoffed when he heard about the unbelievable abundance Elisha prophesied, ended up dying when he was trampled by the plunderers fulfilling another of Elisha's prophecies. God's word is sturdy and true, regardless of how ridiculous it might sound in your ears for your situation. Circumstances aren't what is most real. What God says is most real. Like Gehazi, who saw the flaming chariots of God surrounding them, we need eyes to see what God is doing too, and a heart that believes what he says is true. Both Gehazi and the king's attendant were dumbfounded with God's rescue, but one asked his master what to do when faced with his trouble, and he lived to tell the tale. The other mocked what God said when faced with his trouble, and he didn't. In my trouble at the gas pump, I didn't ask God what to do. I thought I knew. I didn't speak truth in love. I didn't believe what God says about all things working out for my good. I took matters into my own hands because I assumed my situation was out of God's. See how badly I looked when the truth finally came out? I have quite a lot of crow to eat. Either God and his word are strong enough to hold me when nothing makes sense around me or they're not. Which will I choose to believe in my infuriating incidents, snap judgments, and frightening circumstances? Sign number one A thriving faith sees through the events of earth and trusts the God who rules over them. The New Testament passage is Acts sixteen one to fifteen.

Acts 16:1-15

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Ordinary events directed Paul and Barnabas about what to do next on their missionary journey. Here's the rundown. They had a desire to visit friends and then a sharp disagreement about taking John Mark with them, and then a change of plans as Barnabas took John Mark and they went in different directions. Then Paul had a vision of a man calling him to Macedonia, so he, Silas, and Timothy headed there and joined a prayer meeting where Lydia, a prominent citizen, was converted. She gave them an open invitation to stay at her house as long as they were in town. Paul embraced all of these events as coming from God himself. He saw nothing as too personal or discouraging or woo woo for God to use. His faith in God imbued everything with significance. He yielded to all of it as coming from God for his kingdom. From Paul I learned that the key to having a fulfilling life isn't having everything going according to my plan and making sense to me. The key is letting go of myself altogether and entering into what God is doing, which includes any future temptations to misjudge that I'm sure to stumble into. No matter how unexpected something is in the moment, I want to yield to what God brings me to. A thriving faith embraces

Psalm 142, Prayer, Proverbs 17:23-24

SPEAKER_00 9:58

the movement of God in the details of daily living. From Psalm one hundred forty two. David prayed and I'm at the end of my rope sort of prayer. He was alone in a cave and desperate with no one to rescue. He spills his complaints and spells out the details and beg God for mercy. But his was not an I'm hopeless at the end of my rope sort of prayer. It was an honest and hopeful one. He knew that God saw him and knew how he felt and saw the danger he was in, all of which are full of hope. And he asked God to rescue him so that he could thank him with his people when it all worked out in the end, because it would, and they'd enjoy the showers of blessing God would be sure to bring about. This is what experiencing God's rescue in your troubles produces confidence that he will come through for you again, just as he's done every other time you've needed him. Sign number three, a thriving faith prays with an honest and hopeful desperation. Prayer God, from the issues of our widest world to the issues of my deepest heart, I'm easily made fearful. Give me a sturdier faith with eyes to see you above the things that undo me. Help me respond to you with hopeful trust rather than hopeless unbelief. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs 17, 23 to 24. Bad guys can be bought because they despise justice. Wise folks find wisdom right under their noses, while fools look everywhere and find absolutely none. Passages from Second Kings, Acts, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve de Bartleaban, Robuck.