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Season 3 Ep 15 Learning to be Faithful Where You Are
171 Plays2 years ago
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Transcript
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi,
Introduction to Root Like Faith
00:00:01
Speaker
I'm Ruth Schwank and I'm so thrilled you're listening in with us at Root Like Faith. It is our deepest desire to encourage and equip men and women to be rooted in God's word, transformed by the love of Jesus and moved by his mission in the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is more important.
00:00:20
Speaker
Well, today it is just me. It's just me. Usually
Theme of Hidden Faithfulness
00:00:24
Speaker
my husband Patrick is here with me or Patrick's doing an interview, but today it's just me. And that's because I wanted to share with you a word that has really been on my heart, a theme that's been on my heart for quite a while now. I've been kind of thinking through and pondering and I hope it's an encouragement to you. And so that theme is what I'm calling hidden faithfulness.
00:00:48
Speaker
hidden faithfulness whether anyone sees it or not. And this is the idea that the sum of our moments and the way that we spend them matter. The choices we make are faithfulness to God in the seen and the unseen matter. Of course, not only for right now, but really also for eternity.
00:01:13
Speaker
And I wish I could say that I never struggled with this, but the truth is I've been struggling with this, I feel like for the last 30 years since I started following Christ in high school. And it's just something that I feel like I've had to continue to learn and grow through. And that's why I want to talk about it today.
Spiritual Awakening and Paradigm Shift
00:01:34
Speaker
You know, I remember, and maybe I've shared this story before, I remember when I was in high school and I first started following Christ. I hadn't been a Christian very long and I wasn't really going to church consistently. I know I must have missed some youth group meetings or something because my youth pastor at the time scribbled a verse.
00:01:58
Speaker
on a piece of paper and sent it home with a friend to give to me and that's all that was on this piece of paper was this Bible verse and my friend gave it to me and I can remember clear as day and I have a terrible memory I don't remember a lot from when I was younger but I can remember clear as day reading this Bible verse on this piece of paper it was John 3 30 he must become greater I must become less
00:02:27
Speaker
And at that moment, it's like the light bulb went on for me and I had this complete paradigm shift. I realized, oh my word, this life is not about me and living for myself and what I want to do, which
00:02:45
Speaker
You know, at that time was happening. I was living for myself. I wasn't putting Christ first. I was a brand new Christian. But the light bulb went on for me when I read John 3 30. He must become greater. I must become less.
00:03:00
Speaker
And I realized it was no longer about me, but my life was to be lived for God. And like I mentioned already, even more significant was that my life mattered and how I lived my life mattered for eternity.
00:03:16
Speaker
You know, every season is different. And
Encouragement for Faithfulness in All Seasons
00:03:20
Speaker
every season demands a different capacity from us as humans. And sometimes we are really busy and we're really distracted. Sometimes we feel like, OK, I got this right. I've got I'm feeling together right now. I can't. I mean, I when I'm in those busy seasons and I think back to the times when I felt like, oh, I've got this all together, I'm like, I don't even know who that person was.
00:03:46
Speaker
But there's times where we feel like okay, we've got it all together man. We have all the time in the world our schedules working out great And you know sometimes we feel really close to God and Sometimes we feel really far away from God
00:04:04
Speaker
But no matter how you feel or what is going on in your life, the call is still the same and that's to keep being faithful. And whether you are listening today and you are 20 years old,
00:04:21
Speaker
you're 30 years old or you're 60 years old, the call is still the same. It's the same for me and it's the same for you. And that is to be faithful in the seen and unseen moments of your life to God, because God has blessed you and trusted you and promised to empower you by his grace to live out the calling that he has on your life.
00:04:46
Speaker
You know, I really love the story of Moses' mom in the Bible.
The Story of Yokeved and Her Impact
00:04:51
Speaker
And I have used this story actually for years as I talk to different moms and speak at mother's groups and speak at conferences for moms. But, you know, I really think this story has a lesson for all of us.
00:05:07
Speaker
And it is a beautiful, beautiful biblical account of someone who was faithful when no one was watching, when no one was watching, no matter the cost and not for accolades. And I want us to have that in our minds today, not for accolades, but for the glory of God. And Moses' mom, she understood the huge role she played in history.
00:05:36
Speaker
Her name was Yokeved and she knew like every Hebrew woman did at that time that to give birth in Egypt was a death sentence so that at the time that she's giving birth to Moses this is what the Bible tells us in Exodus 1 15 through 17 it says
00:05:54
Speaker
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shipra and Pu'ah, when you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him. But if it is a girl, let her live.
00:06:10
Speaker
The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do. They let the boys live. So even though the king of Egypt had ordered all boys to be killed, it was a death sentence for Moses to be born. We know that Yokebed obviously gave birth to Moses.
00:06:29
Speaker
and she hid him for as long as she could. And I just can't even imagine the bravery in that. Think about that today knowing that you are, and how do you hide a child who surely cries?
00:06:47
Speaker
You know hiding this child for as long as she could and the trepidation that must have come from that And I just I can't even imagine when I put myself in Moses mom's shoes I can't imagine just the pain and agony of what she was facing and what she had to do and that was that she couldn't keep him forever and so she had to do what most of us all of us could
00:07:15
Speaker
not even begin to imagine and that is that she had to put him in a basket and push him gently off the shore of the Nile I'm sure praying that that somehow God would rescue Moses and
00:07:31
Speaker
As the story unfolds, and only as God would have it, which I just love, love, love this story, is that Moses' sister Miriam is actually watching from a distance when Moses' mom pushes him off the shore of the Nile. She's watching him from a distance as he goes down the Nile River and comes ashore into the presence of Pharaoh's daughter.
00:07:57
Speaker
And so here's Pharaoh, who had just ordered all boys be killed. And here's Moses, the boy that was born and kept alive, coming into the presence of Pharaoh's daughter. And I love this so much. Moses' sister.
00:08:15
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is watching from a distance, she sees Pharaoh's daughter, you know, gather Moses, and she comes and she approaches Pharaoh's daughter and suggests to Pharaoh's daughter that a Hebrew woman would be a fitting person to nurse this young abandoned boy. And so, and Pharaoh's daughter agrees. And so before we know it,
00:08:38
Speaker
Moses' mom is reunited with Moses. Yokebed and Moses are reunited. And it's just such a beautiful story. And we don't know how long Yokebed then would be able to take Moses back home to nurse him and to take care of him for as long as he needed that. And so we don't know how long that
00:09:03
Speaker
period of time was before she had to release him back into Pharaoh's palace. But we do know this about Moses. Moses would grow up to save a nation of fellow Hebrews from slaughter, becoming Israel's great leader and giver of the law. Moses' mom's hidden faithfulness that no one saw, that maybe to a lot of us seem behind the scenes and insignificant, had an eternal impact.
00:09:33
Speaker
on generations to come. This is what we see in the New Testament about Moses and his family, and I just love this. It's in Hebrews 11, 23 through 27. It says, by faith, Moses's parents hid him for three months after he was born because they saw he was no ordinary child.
00:09:54
Speaker
and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward.
The Significance of Unseen Faithful Moments
00:10:17
Speaker
By faith,
00:10:19
Speaker
He left Egypt, not fearing the King's anger. He persevered because he saw him who is invisible. Moses' mom was faithful to what God called her to when no one was watching. And God used her through Moses to change the world. So that is the question I want to ask you today.
00:10:44
Speaker
Are you faithful to God in those moments when no one is watching? Because those moments, those moments that seem insignificant, they matter and they matter for eternity. They matter personally to your own soul, but they also matter for all of those around you. Are you faithful to God in those moments when no one is watching?
00:11:12
Speaker
Ephesians 5, 14 through 16 says, Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.
00:11:31
Speaker
And I love here the word wise that we read in this verse how you live not as unwise but as wise making the most of every opportunity. That
Faith as a Lifelong Story
00:11:42
Speaker
word here in Hebrew actually means skillfully. So the word for wise in Hebrew means skillfully and I love that because I don't really think about
00:11:53
Speaker
wisdom necessarily as a skill and that's this gives us a whole new picture right the word wise in Hebrew means skillfully be very careful then how you live skillfully
00:12:07
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That takes work, right? Making the most of every opportunity. I love that. Well, as my friend Sally Clarkson says so often, we have one chance to tell a story of faith. And the way you live your days today,
00:12:28
Speaker
tomorrow, yesterday, moving forward. That's your greatest testimony. Whether you want to do big things for God, go change the world, speak on a stage, write a book, whatever that big dream looks like for you. Of course, I mention those things because
00:12:46
Speaker
You know, writing a book is what I do and being online and ministering online to hundreds of thousands of women. It's incredible. It's just an incredible opportunity. Whatever that big dream is for you, it starts right where you are today. And that's what I try to remind myself as well.
00:13:07
Speaker
It starts right where you are today with who you really are, your integrity and your character, who you are at home there first in those places, in those in that hidden faithfulness, in those insignificant moments, who you are there in those places is who you really are.
Reflection on Faithfulness
00:13:28
Speaker
So I'm gonna leave you with two questions because I love practical, I always love the takeaway, right? I'm gonna leave you with two questions that I'd love for you to kind of think through and ponder and take some time to respond.
00:13:48
Speaker
And really just ask what God is trying to tell you and teach you through this. The first question is just really a yes or no question, but it's something to think through and ponder. And that is will you be faithful when no one is watching and with whatever God calls you to? Will you be faithful when no one is watching and with whatever God calls you to?
00:14:15
Speaker
And the second question is this, where in your life do you need to make God greater and honor Him more? Like I shared earlier, John 3.30, that actually is my life verse. That's the verse that my youth pastor had written down on a little scrap piece of paper so many years ago when I was in high school. And that's when the light bulb went on for me, that I was living for myself and not for the Lord.
00:14:43
Speaker
That's a question that I still ask myself, where in my life do I need to make God greater and honor Him more? And that's my life. First John 3 30, he must become greater and I must become less. And I think it's something that we have to visit over and over and over again in our lives because it's not natural for us to make God greater.
00:15:07
Speaker
Right? It's not natural for us. We don't have that natural tendency. So it's something we have to keep coming back to and asking the Lord to help us do that to make him greater. He must become greater. I must become less. So where in your life do you need to make God greater and honor him more?
00:15:26
Speaker
So I'd love for you to take some time to think through those questions, maybe journal, ponder those questions, and maybe respond to God with a prayer on whatever and whatever He's asking you to do with what I've shared today.
Conclusion and Connection
00:15:42
Speaker
So I'm so grateful that you have joined me, friend. I hope that you were encouraged by this word. If we haven't met yet, I want to get to know you. Please follow me on Instagram at Rooshwank. And don't just follow me, though. Introduce yourself. Send me a DM.
00:16:00
Speaker
Let me know your name and where you're from. Well, I might see your name if it's in your Instagram profile. But if it's not, let me know your name, introduce yourself, where you're from, and I can't wait to get to know you better. Also, don't forget, everything we talked about will be at rootlikefaith.com forward slash podcast. All right, friend. Well, we will chat soon, and I hope you have the best week.