Episode 104 – Walking in Faithfulness

Speaker 1 (00:01):

Welcome to a podcast designed to bring biblical encouragement to your weary soul. We are so glad you’re listening and we pray God blesses you and strengthens you in your walk with him. The Sweet Selah Moments Podcast is brought to you by the cooperative efforts of Sweet Selah Ministries and Word Radio. Sit back and enjoy.

Nicole (00:29):

Welcome to the Sweet Selah Moments Podcast. This is episode 104, Walking in Faithfulness. I love faithfulness, Sharon. To have people in your life that you can count on is such a gift. And of course, to have God who is always faithful as my heavenly Father is so reassuring. Two of the most faithful people in my life growing up were my parents, actually. (Sharon: Oh) My dad came from kind of an abusive and very dysfunctional family where church was a punishment. They dragged (Oh, my) him to a local Catholic church, and it was not something he enjoyed. And my mom was a pastor’s kid in a pretty strict church where she couldn’t do anything quite well enough. So neither one had a great early experience in churches, but they came to know Christ and rededicated themselves to him. And I can count on one hand the Sundays we missed growing up. (Aw) They were very faithful.

Sharon (01:16):

You were an always there family.

Nicole (01:18):

We were, you know, and we really enjoyed going to church for the most part. You know, we had been part of a few churches in the process of moving and settling into areas that were not so great. But they, my parents, helped instill a love and a habit of church attendance. And that was really precious.

Sharon (01:33):

It is precious. And it takes, it takes effort to get children dressed and out the door on a Sunday morning. Oh my goodness. I can remember when our kids were little, it seemed like all our fights took place on a Sunday morning,(Nicole: Yes) between Ray and me.

Nicole (01:47):

Why is that?

Sharon (01:48):

What is that? And I finally, I finally got over expecting things from Ray that he was not able to give. (Nicole: Mm-hmm) And just got up earlier and got them ready early and everything was peaceful again. And it was so worth it. It really was.

Nicole (02:05):

And then you had time to find the lost shoe or untangle the knot from the hair.

Sharon (02:08):

I had time. Exactly. I was always trying to sleep in that little bit and then it’s, (Nicole: Oh yes) Where’s the shoe? And Ray’d be like, how do I know where the shoe is? (Right) Right?

Nicole (02:16):

This one will work. That’s a mud boot.

Sharon (02:17):

So we’d get to church, but you know, then we’re mad. (Nicole: Oh yea) And that is not the way to go. So, anyways, I understand why it’s hard for people to get to church. (Yes) And I think nowadays it’s harder than ever because so many activities happen on a Sunday.

Nicole (02:30):

Oh yes. You’re fighting every sporting activity and every adventure out there.

Sharon (02:33):

You are. Yeah. Yeah. And yet there’s such a sweetness about faithfully being there. (Nicole: Oh yeah) There really is. Oh, that was a good example. (Yeah) I liked it. It’s funny, as I was thinking of faithfulness, I thought of my parents and Ray’s parents both. We are blessed that we have parents that stayed married and loved each other. And my parents still do love each other. They’re living. Ray’s parents have died. And I loved watching their love growing up. (That’s so sweet) Mom and Dad Gamble were just inseparable. They did things together, uh, sometimes more than Mom Gamble wanted. I remember when Dad Gamble first retired, he didn’t really have hobbies. So he’s like, so what are we doing today? And she’d think, oh, wow, you’re with me all day now. But they adjusted and they did a lot of trips together. They did some camping together. (Oh) And when Mom got sick, Dad got sick, they both did at different times. They were there cleaning out the wounds, you know, sitting in the hospital day after day, never leaving the other’s side.

Nicole (03:36):

Oh, that’s so sweet.

Sharon (03:37):

Just such an example. (Nicole: Yeah) And then my parents as well. (Mm-hmm) They met from two different cultures. Mom’s, British, Daddy’s American, and, uh, they had to meld their cultures together. (Yeah) And there were differences. And as my mother said, there were some marital moments, when things did not go smoothly. (Right) But, but they’ve stayed married, they’ve stayed happy. They still walk together every day. They play Scrabble every night. They have an ongoing Scrabble battle. (Oh my goodness) And it just blesses me that in my heritage are people that stuck it out.

Nicole (04:14):

Oh. That is such a gift.

Sharon (04:15):

When it was hard and when it was easy. Isn’t it? (Nicole: Yeah) It’s a huge gift. I’m so, so grateful. So faithfulness is a wonderful thing. (It is) I feel we should define it. We’ve kind of talked about people that have lived it out in their lives. (Yeah) But what’s the definition?

Nicole (04:30):

Hmm. The definition of faithfulness. So from dictionary.com, it says, ‘the quality of being faithful. Or fidelity, the fact or quality of being true to one’s word, or commitments, as to what one has pledged to do, professed to believe, et cetera; lasting loyalty and trustworthiness in relationships, especially in marriage and friendships’. (Sharon: Huh) ‘And the quality of adhering to a standard or an original or a fact’. So there, there were a lot of definitions for faithfulness. Sometimes you get like one or two, but there is all of these things describing (A ton. Yeah) how one can be faithful.

Sharon (05:06):

Yeah. Basically, if somebody’s faithful to you, you can trust them.

Nicole (05:10):

Yes. They’ve got your back. You don’t have to worry about something being let down there.

Sharon (05:14):

Yeah. You’re not blindsided. So, oh, I wanna be that faithful friend.

Nicole (05:18):

Oh yeah. What a gift to others.

Sharon (05:19):

And that faithful wife. (Nicole: Yes) Yes, yes, yes. Well, it’s a fruit of the Spirit. (Yeah) And so therefore we need God’s help with it. (Absolutely) And in marriage. Definitely.

Nicole (05:29):

Yes.

Sharon (05:30):

We need God’s help with it. So, but we’re gonna look at some characters from the Bible that exhibited faithfulness. (Nicole: Mm-hmm) And take turns with that and just kind of examine the faithfulness in their own lives. (Yeah) And I’m starting way back in Genesis with Noah. (Hmm) He was faithful to God in the weirdest of circumstances. (Mm-hmm) He’s told to build an ark. And I, you’ve seen the ark, right? (Yes) I haven’t seen it. (It’s wild) The one that was built to scale in what state? Kentucky?

Nicole (06:00):

Kentucky. Yes.

Sharon (06:01):

Kentucky. Yes. I’m going someday. That’s on my bucket list. (Nicole: Mm-hmm) If I don’t get there, here in this life, God will show me the ark in heaven. (Right) Anyways, it’s huge.

Nicole (06:10):

It is so big.

Sharon (06:11):

It’s huge. It had to hold all the animals. It was huge. He’s building it on dry land. There’s no water around. A lot of scholars believed there was also no rain at that time. (Nicole: Right) It was just sort of a mist. And wasn’t until the flood that some kind of atmospheric thing (Yes) changed. I can’t, don’t ask me to explain it cause I’m not scientific. But anyways, this was craziness.

Nicole (06:32):

Yeah. He looked completely crazy to be out there building something like that.

Sharon (06:36):

Unbelievable. This was craziness and it took years. I don’t know how many, it was between his 500th and his 600th year. I studied that in Genesis, but I don’t know more than that. So it could have taken almost a hundred years. He also had to gather two of every animal. (NIcole: Right) And seven of some animals. So he did this year after year after year after year. Faithfully doing what God asked with no rain and no water.

Sharon (07:04):

Unbelievable. So I chose a verse that kind of explains it in Hebrews, actually, I didn’t go to Genesis for it. Hebrews 11:7 says this, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith, he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.” He was warned about things not seen. (Nicole: Wow) And he trusted. (Yeah) And so we need to do the same. Sometimes God tells us to do something that’s hard and we don’t see the good in forgiving or whatevers, right? But we do it and we trust. So there is a great example of faithfulness. (I love this story) You got an example of faithfulness?

Nicole (07:46):

Yeah. I get to talk about Abraham. He’s pretty cool too. (Sharon: He is, he is) so way back there in Genesis as well. So Abraham, he had a really great life. He was all settled in a really nice city with a lot of nice cushy advances back then, you know? (Yeah. Yeah) And God said, I’m gonna make you a great nation, even though you’re old and have no children. Leave? (Can you stand it?) That part just kills me. (Unbelievable). And he takes them outside, shows ’em the stars and says, this is how many children you’re gonna have. Still they had no children and he was faithful and he trusted God. And he went into the desert. And you know what kills— what really gets me, is that Abraham never saw his millions of children. He never saw the Promised Land. He ended up living his life out in the desert, trusting in God being faithful to him, you know, waiting to see that promise fulfilled. But he never I mean, he did get a little, he got a little weary and sidetracked at one point. (Yeah. He did. Sarah kind of helped with that, yeah.) Tried to rush ahead to children.

Sharon (08:40):

But he remained faithful until the end as well.

Sharon (08:44):

He did. He did.

Nicole (08:46):

It’s just so fascinating.

Sharon (08:46):

Such a wonderful example. (Nicole: Yeah) He really is. He really is. And then no wonder they named Isaac ‘Laughter’, you know, and they finally had their kid.

Nicole (08:54):

Oh I know. That just makes me giggle.

Sharon (08:55):

It just cracked them up. I mean, he’s a hundred, right?

Nicole (08:57):

Yeah.

Sharon (08:57):

When he has his son.

Nicole (08:58):

She was like 99. Yeah, I can’t even imagine.

Sharon (08:58):

Yeah. Something like that. Very past the prime (Nicole: Yes) of having children. I love that story. (And here’s this little boy). I love it. And I love how he believed in what he did not see.

Nicole (09:08):

Mm, absolutely. And then after they had Isaac, he was told to sacrifice him. Again, makes no sense. And he was faithful!

Sharon (09:15):

He got right up next morning, Remember?

Nicole (09:17):

Yes.

Sharon (09:17):

The next morning gets up and goes.

Nicole (09:19):

Yep. Tied him up, got the knife in the air and then God was like, actually, stop this.

Sharon (09:23):

Yes, yes, yes. Actually I will provide the ram.

Nicole (09:25):

Yeah. But wow. His faithfulness is astonishing.

Sharon (09:27):

He is. He’s like the father of all faithfulness.

Nicole (09:29):

Yes.

Sharon (09:29):

You’ve got a good one there.

Nicole (09:30):

I know. I love Abraham.

Sharon (09:33):

Well, my next one’s at the end of Genesis and it’s Joseph. (Nicole: Oh) I love Joseph. (Oh he’s a good one too) Joseph the little kid with the rainbow coat who was absolutely his daddy’s favorite. (Yes) He might have been number 11 in children. But he was number one for Rachel, the wife that Jacob wanted from the very beginning. (Yes. The one he really loved) So he was, in Jacob’s mind, kind of his firstborn son. And the other guys were not pleased with that decision. (Mm-hmm) So of course they wanna kill him. Instead they merely sell him into slavery where he has to be slave for the rest of his life in a foreign land, Egypt. (Right) And what does he do? He faithfully does the right thing. (Mm-hmm) He works hard for Potiphar, the guy that he’s assigned to. (Yeah) Everything prospers because he’s doing right. (Right) Even though he could have been bitter and angry. (Right) Because nothing had gone his way. And it wasn’t his fault he was his dad’s favorite.

Nicole (10:25):

Right. He’s, he went from being a spoiled child to a indentured servant.

Sharon (10:29):

Yeah. And so he did good.

Nicole (10:30):

He did.

Sharon (10:30):

And then of course, Potiphar’s wife accuses him falsely. And, and he gets thrown into prison. And what does old Joseph do? He does well in prison as well.

Nicole (10:40):

He is so good.

Sharon (10:41):

So I’m reading from Genesis 39:19-23 here. “When his master, Potiphar, heard the story his wife told him saying, this is how your slave treated me, he burned with anger. Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him. He showed him kindness, granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison.” (Nicole: Oh my word) Why? Because Joseph was trustworthy. He was still being faithful to God. Amazing. And back to the scripture, “He was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.” (Wow) So the warden had a cushy job, basically, cause he made Joseph the warden. I

Nicole (11:26):

I was gonna say, free labor. And he trusted him. He didn’t check anything. He said.

Sharon (11:29):

Joseph was faithful.

Nicole (11:30):

Wow.

Sharon (11:30):

Joseph continued to be faithful when everything said, why should I be faithful to a God who keeps letting bad things happen to me? And I’ve heard many women say that to me. (Mm-hmm) What does God have against me? Why should I love him anymore? You know? Well, because he’s good. (Mm-hmm) And because he still loves you even if he’s allowed bad things. (Yeah) Look at our Joseph. (I know) I know.

Nicole (11:53):

Just keeps getting from bad to worse but his faithfulness continued.

Sharon (11:56):

Yep. But it’s still better to be good.

Nicole (11:57):

Yes.

Sharon (11:58):

That’s the thing.

Nicole (11:58):

That’s true. Oh, that’s a good point. Yeah.

Sharon (12:01):

It’s still better to be good.

Nicole (12:02):

He would’ve been miserable if he had been bitter and angry.

Sharon (12:04):

Well, yeah.

Nicole (12:04):

And it wouldn’t have gotten him anywhere

Sharon (12:05):

Wasted away in prison.

Nicole (12:06):

You’re right. (Sharon: Yeah) But because he followed God and was faithful in the goodness, he was able to have a better life within (Eventually) the trouble. (Yes) Yes.

Sharon (12:14):

Yeah. So okay.

Nicole (12:14):

Very interesting. I get to talk about Ruth. I love Ruth.

Sharon (12:18):

Yes, I do too. We just did a study on Ruth. I’ve enjoyed it.

Nicole (12:21):

I know.

Sharon (12:22):

Yeah.

Nicole (12:22):

She’s so faithful. So her husband dies, she doesn’t have to stay with her mother-in-law. And sometimes relationships with mother-in-laws can be a little tricky. (Sharon: Yeah) Her sister-in-law had already left to go back to her family. Ruth was faithful and she stayed with Naomi as she went back to her homeland. (Yeah) She faithfully provided for her. She went out and got a job for her and she just stayed with her to the end, even though there was nothing in it for Ruth. She had to travel to a foreign land as a foreigner. (Mm-hmm) Get treated, probably not great cause she was a foreigner. (Mm-hmm) And she was faithful to the end. And then God brought her to Boaz. (Yay) And then she got to get married and have a baby.

Sharon (12:58):

I love it.

Nicole (12:59):

And then Jesus came from them.

Sharon (13:00):

And when she had the baby, she was faithful because she gave Obed to Naomi. And Naomi—

Nicole (13:05):

Oh, that’s right.

Sharon (13:06):

It, it came under Naomi’s family line. Not Boaz’, the first child.

Nicole (13:10):

You’re right. That’s right.

Sharon (13:10):

So they kind of co-parented.

Nicole (13:12):

That’s so cool. I That’s really tough to do.

Sharon (13:14):

Are you kidding me? She had had no children for 10 years with Naomi’s son.

Nicole (13:20):

Right.

Sharon (13:20):

So she’d been barren. She finally has a baby. (Nicole: Oh) And she places it on Naomi’s lap.

Nicole (13:26):

That’s awfully nice.

Sharon (13:28):

Incredible faithfulness and love to Naomi. You know, no wonder they say all those words that—

Nicole (13:34):

I was gonna say,

Sharon (13:34):

In the marriage ceremony, ‘wherever you go, I will go, wherever you die, I will die. (Nicole: Yep) May God deal with me ever so severely, if anything but death separate you and me’.

Nicole (13:43):

Yeah. That’s a very faithful statement.

Sharon (13:45):

Yeah.

Nicole (13:45):

It doesn’t get better than that.

Sharon (13:47):

Yeah. Yeah. And she chose God all the way through. So good.

Nicole (13:49):

She did.

Sharon (13:49):

Well, we talked about David and Jonathan’s friendship (Nicole: Yeah) back when we did our study on David and their faithfulness was amazing because Jonathan was, hello, going to be the next king after Saul. And instead Jonathan recognized that God had chosen David, not him. (Yeah) And instead of, you know, joining his father and trying to kill David, he actually hid David several times from his dad. And he was loyal to David and he was gonna stand by David’s side. He was killed, unfortunately, so he couldn’t. But Jonathan was a faithful friend to his own detriment.

Nicole (14:22):

Yeah. Oh.

Sharon (14:23):

Unbelievable. Oh man. Jonathan’s just so a hero to me. (Nicole: Yeah) But then David, when he becomes king, realizes that he could still be faithful to Jonathan even after Jonathan’s death. (Yeah). And seeks out, any remaining children that were alive of Jonathan’s. There’s one, Mephibosheth, who is crippled. And Mephibosheth, scared to death, comes into David’s presence. (Yeah) And David lets him, I’ll just, I’ve got too many scriptures to read on this one. I’ll just read the last little bit. “When Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him, honor. David said, Mephibosheth, at your service, he replied, (he was so scared). Don’t be afraid, David said to him, for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather, Saul. (David’s enemy) (Nicole: Yeah) And you will always eat at my table.”

Nicole (15:20):

Wow.

Sharon (15:21):

What?

Nicole (15:21):

He did not have to do that. Jonathan was gone. He didn’t.

Sharon (15:25):

And Mephibosheth wasn’t looking for it at all.

Nicole (15:27):

No.

Sharon (15:27):

He was scared to death at what was gonna happen. He’s like, I’m the only survivor. What’s gonna happen now?

Nicole (15:32):

Right. Wow.

Sharon (15:32):

But he was faithful past death to Jonathan.

Nicole (15:36):

That’s so good. The faithfulness. It’s towards God almost at this point.

Sharon (15:41):

Yeah it is.

Nicole (15:42):

Because his friend isn’t gonna benefit from that. And this guy was just living his life, didn’t know that he could have a better life if a king bestowed favor on him.

Sharon (15:49):

Right. Yeah.

Nicole (15:50):

But oh, that’s just,

Sharon (15:51):

I know. I love that story.

Nicole (15:52):

They have a cool relationship.

Sharon (15:53):

Yeah.

Nicole (15:53):

Well let’s talk about Daniel

Sharon (15:56):

He’s a great example too.

Nicole (15:57):

Yeah. So brought into captivity as a young man. He stayed faithful to his ways and asked for permission to not eat the way everyone else was being forced to eat. (Sharon: Mm-hmm) And God blessed him and he thrived in that crazy diet in this new land. Which I just love that, all vegetables. And then he would be, he was so faithful in his praying, he prayed three times a day. (Yep) Every day. And I believe it, it was fairly public too, cause people saw him and reported him to the king in a land that did not worship the One True God. So that was an odd thing. And then he was faithful to the end in refusing to bow down to the idol. Then he was thrown into the pit of lions. (Mm-hmm) Which then God protected him from.

Sharon (16:35):

Yes he did. Yeah.

Nicole (16:36):

So faithful too. He, I mean, I think he was assuming he was going to die in that pit of lions.

Sharon (16:40):

Yep.

Nicole (16:41):

Cause one has never heard of God stopping lions eating.

Sharon (16:43):

No, one has never heard that. They were hungry. Yes. Cause they threw in everybody else afterwards. And the lions had no trouble destroying the rest.

Nicole (16:49):

Oh my goodness. Yes. So he was faithful unto death for Christ.

Sharon (16:52):

He was.

Nicole (16:52):

He was willing to go to his death for him.

Sharon (16:54):

Yeah. Yeah. I love it. And Daniel’s another one who you could easily have turned his back on God. (Nicole: Yeah) Right. He’s taken and he’s (Nicole: To a new culture and country. Yes) Ripped away from everything. You know, God, God honors, if not in this life, in the next life, those that are faithful, whether we get rewards here or not. (That’s true) And I think we’re seeing that over and over again. (Yeah) Faithfulness is, is knowing that God is who he says he is. (Mm-hmm) And that no matter what he allows in, (Right) he is still good.

Nicole (17:25):

Yeah. Even if he’d allowed the lions to eat Daniel, (Sharon: He is still good) there would have been rewards for faithfulness then.

Sharon (17:29):

Yeah. Yeah. His friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, when they got the fire furnace, it was like, you know, our God’s gonna deliver us? But even if he doesn’t (Nicole: Yes) he’s still our God.

Nicole (17:38):

Oh, that verse always gives me chills. Say that before pain.

Sharon (17:41):

That’s it. That’s faithfulness. This is the faith God wants. (Nicole: Yeah) Not faith that we snap our fingers and he does what we want, so therefore we like him.

Nicole (17:50):

Right. He’s not our genie.

Sharon (17:52):

No. He’s either God or he isn’t. (Nicole: Yep) And he actually never promised any of us a rose garden.

Nicole (17:57):

I know.

Sharon (17:57):

Right?

Nicole (17:58):

And we want that so much.

Sharon (17:58):

I know. I know It. So, but um,

Nicole (18:01):

Daniel had a good, he had a great faithfulness. And it’s such an encouragement to us, you know?

Sharon (18:05):

It is such an encouragement. So I’m gonna move on to Hosea because Hosea actually represents God’s faithfulness.

Nicole (18:12):

This is a hard this story to read.

Sharon (18:13):

Yeah. Talk about a crazy thing to do. Go marry a woman who is a prostitute and who will not be faithful to you after you marry her.

Nicole (18:20):

Right.

Sharon (18:21):

Have fun with that.

Nicole (18:22):

That does not sound like a fun marriage.

Sharon (18:23):

Right. So Hosea does. (Nicole: Yeah) And they have children together. And then Gomer, her name, leaves and goes back to a life of prostitution. So, and then God says, go buy her back again. (I know) And love her again. So, I’m gonna read Hosea 3:1-5 cause I just love the way this goes. “The Lord said to me, go show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” (Wow) Demonstrate that I am loving an adulterous people. (Wow) This is our God. “So I bought her for 15 shackles of silver and about a homer and a lethik of barley. Then I told her, you are to live with me many days. You must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man. And I will behave the same toward you. For the Israelites will live many days without king or princes, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings In the last days.” So Hosea was asked to live out how God loves us and his faithfulness to the people Israel was, even after they went after the raisin cakes and the idols and stuff. (Right) He bought them back by the blood of Christ. And he buys us, redeems us by his blood. That’s how much he loves us. That’s how faithful he is to an unfaithful people. (Mm-hmm) Once he makes covenant with us, Nicole, he’s faithful.

Nicole (20:11):

He doesn’t break it.

Sharon (20:12):

He doesn’t break his word. We break ours.

Nicole (20:14):

I know. You can see the faithfulness (Sharon: Oh, man) of God so much in this story too of Hosea, but just, oh, just God, his faithfulness to us and never letting us go and never failing.

Sharon (20:24):

He never does.

Nicole (20:24):

Yep. That’s so good. All right. So I’m gonna talk about Mary and Joseph. Oh, I love them.

Sharon (20:30):

They’re such a nice couple.

Nicole (20:30):

They were both faithful in an incredibly and difficult path that God called each of them to. You know Mary, he called her to be the mother of the Messiah and carry this completely unexpected pregnancy. (Sharon: Mm-hmm) And then Joseph, to trust God’s plan and to marry her despite this miraculous pregnancy with, you know, no explanations. (Right) And take care of her and the baby. And they were both faithful, both of them called to a hard task coming together in faithfulness to follow God and then committing to raising the Messiah. (Yes) Wow. That’s a big task. I can’t imagine, like No, no, no. Don’t pick me. I’m gonna mess this up. But they were faithful up until you know, I don’t know when Joseph died in his son life. (No, they don’t mention that. Yeah) Mary was faithful and stood with him through the end. That must have been so devastating.

Sharon (21:15):

Even at the cross she was there.

Nicole (21:16):

She was at his feet watching her son die.

Sharon (21:18):

Yep.

Nicole (21:18):

So, faithfulness to the end for sweet Mary.

Sharon (21:20):

Beautiful couple. God chose well, of course he did.

Nicole (21:23):

He did. Of course he would know.

Sharon (21:25):

Yeah. Yeah.

Nicole (21:25):

But they were very faithful.

Sharon (21:26):

And then of course our Jesus was faithful. (Nicole: Yes) He, in the end at the Garden of Gethsemane, begged for another way. (Mmm) The human in him did not want the cross. (Yeah) You know, and yet he did it. And I, I love what Hebrews 12 taught when it talks about fixing our eyes on Jesus. (Mm-hmm) So I’m gonna read verses two and three, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him, Jesus, who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Nicole (22:07):

Wow.

Sharon (22:08):

Look at what Jesus did for us.

Nicole (22:08):

Jesus did that for us. Yes.

Sharon (22:10):

His faithfulness to us, to the point of death. (Nicole: Yeah) Right. And also separation from God cause when all our sin came upon him on that cross when he said, take, let me take their sin and you punish me. (Right) There was the, ‘My God, my God. Why has thou forsaken me moment?’ It’s when the sin separated God from God. (Right) God, the Son, from God, the Father for that time. (The Godhead, the Three. Yeah) Probably the worst agony of all.

Nicole (22:36):

Oh my gosh. Yeah. To go from that communion, that unity of those Three. (Sharon: Mm-hmm) To being separated. It must have been awful. (Unbelievable) We can never understand that. (Yeah. Yeah) And then I think about the disciples, and almost all of them died martyr’s death and pretty horrible ones too.

Sharon (22:53):

Yeah. They weren’t attractive. No,

Nicole (22:54):

No. It wasn’t a quick hanging or something.

Sharon (22:56):

Yeah. Yeah.

Nicole (22:56):

All except for Judas and John. But John was exiled and Judas hung himself. So none of them had terrifically wonderful ends.

Sharon (23:02):

No, they didn’t either.

Nicole (23:03):

But they were faithful in sharing the gospel to the end of their lives, even though faced with awful opposition and terrible deaths.

Sharon (23:10):

Yeah. Yeah. A wonderful faith,

Nicole (23:12):

So true faithfulness for sure.

Sharon (23:13):

Yeah. Yeah. I love faithfulness. I wanna read one more quick passage and then we’ve gotta move on to talking about God and family. I just wanna read this from 2 Timothy. This is Paul writing to Timothy at the end of his life giving Timothy last advice. And at the end of his advice, he says, “This is a trustworthy saying. If we die with him, we will also live with him. If we endure hardship, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful for, he cannot deny who he is.” (Nicole: Wow) If we’re unfaithful, he still remains faithful. That is amazing.

Nicole (23:55):

He can’t be unfaithful.

Sharon (23:56):

No, he can’t.

Nicole (23:57):

That’s incredible.

Sharon (23:58):

He just can’t.

Nicole (23:59):

Wow. He can’t deny who he is.

Sharon (23:59):

So that’s why we’re , thankfully, so safe.

Nicole (24:02):

Yeah. So, Oh.

Sharon (24:03):

Well, with all the fruit, faithfulness is also a hard one. (Nicole: Yes) You know, it means sacrificing our own will sometimes to be faithful to commitments. (Right) And things like that. And even harder. Let’s talk about how we put it into practice practically now.

Nicole (24:18):

Yes. Those are always the hard part.

Sharon (24:20):

Starting with God, in our relationship with God. How do we show faithfulness?

Nicole (24:25):

Time with him such a sacrifice, that sacrifice of time with him, faithfully meeting with him, faithfully reading our Bibles, faithfully attending fellowship with other believers, just faithfulness and coming back to him when we sin to confess our sins. But that coming back to God constantly and just being willing for him to change us. But we have to come to him in faithfulness.

Sharon (24:45):

Yeah. Yeah. I think of the five Holy Habits podcast we did.

Nicole (24:48):

Yes. Yes.

Sharon (24:49):

It was all about the faithful things one should do.

Nicole (24:53):

Yes. That song as a kid, like read your Bible and pray every day you’ll grow, grow, grow.

Sharon (24:57):

Exactly.

Nicole (24:58):

It’s simple, but not always easy. But it’s simple. It’s just time with God.

Sharon (25:01):

And it’s being faithful even when things don’t go our way.

Nicole (25:04):

Yes.

Sharon (25:05):

When we lose our job, when we lose a child. (Nicole: Yes) When we have hard things happen to us, to be faithful to God, even then. I think it blesses his heart. (Mm-hmm) Because what we’re saying is, God, I’m not just loving you because you’re giving me what I want. (Right) I just love you.

Nicole (25:21):

I love you in the hard times too. Not just when I’m being blessed.

Sharon (25:24):

Yeah. Because you are God. (Nicole: Yeah) Period. Whether you’re nice to me here or not. I know you’re gonna be nice to me there, but regardless you’re still God.

Nicole (25:31):

And don’t we all wanna be loved like that though?

Sharon (25:33):

Yes.

Nicole (25:33):

Not for what we do, but for who we are.

Sharon (25:35):

For who we are. (Nicole: Yeah) Yeah. So that’s faithfulness to God. (Yeah) Absolutely. Yeah. For family, obviously marriage faithfulness. (Yeah). I talked about that a lot. And you know, there are times when one wonders what one was thinking when one chose the spouse, one chose. Right. But we made a commitment.

Nicole (25:52):

Yes. We did.

Sharon (25:53):

And therefore (Nicole: Til death do us part) we work it out. (Yes) That’s right. Ray put up a sign and it said ‘divorce free zone’. (Yeah) Early in our marriage when we were having multiple reasons to not want to stay together. (Yes) Because we weren’t getting along terribly well, but we just didn’t bring up the word. (Yep) It was, all right, we’re in this together. How are we gonna get through the next 50 years arguing as much as we do? (Right) And we did, and we learned to argue much less. And we, we blended together. But it takes faithfulness. And also the other thing I thought of family was care for parents. (Oh yeah) You know, visiting my parents, caring for them. And even though I’m busy, I’m called to honor them. (Mm-hmm) And that’s a faithfulness thing.

Nicole (26:31):

Oh, that’s a good one.

Sharon (26:32):

Yeah. Yeah.

Nicole (26:33):

Yeah. I thought of marriage first too. When we first got married, we said, divorce will not be a word that we say or throw at each other or use in any way. (Sharon: Yeah) My kiddos, they had friends recently get divorced, their parents, and they’re like, mom and dad, will you ever get divorced? And we were talking, we said, we promised God, not just each other, but we stood before God and said, we promised till death to us part to say, well guys, we are trying so hard with God’s faithfulness and his sustaining us never to entertain that as an option. (Right) And it’s hard. It’s not easy,

Sharon (27:01):

It is hard. It’s not easy.

Nicole (27:01):

Because it does come into your mind like, Nope, I promised I wasn’t gonna use that as an escape. You know?

Sharon (27:06):

Right. Right.

Nicole (27:06):

But it’s not easy.

Sharon (27:07):

No.

Nicole (27:08):

And then as a mother to younger children, faithfulness to them and being a godly mom and raising them the way that I should.

Sharon (27:13):

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Well how about for Christians, fellow Christians, how do we show faithfulness to fellow Christians?

Nicole (27:20):

Yeah. I’m thinking by keeping our friendships healthy, you know, by discussing any issues that come up fairly quickly, not letting them fester (Sharon: Mm-hmm) But being open with our friends and loving, and for, you know, our church family too, being an active and faithful member as much as we can. (Yeah) As God calls us to that faithfulness to our local church, it really does make a difference.

Sharon (27:39):

It does, yeah. Nobody can do everything in the church. And it’s really silly to think you can.

Nicole (27:43):

Yes.

Sharon (27:44):

But what’s, what’s my portion?

Nicole (27:46):

Yes. What’s my part? And I’ll do it faithfully. (Sharon: Right) If it’s sweeping this room, I will sweep it faithfully to God.

Sharon (27:51):

Exactly. Yes. Yep. Big or small, what’s my little service? And show up and do it.

Nicole (27:56):

Yes. Exactly.

Sharon (27:56):

And then faithful to not hold grudges, faithful to love.

Nicole (27:59):

Oh yes. That’s a good one too, too.

Sharon (28:01):

Right. All of those, I think those are great. And for non-Christians.

Nicole (28:05):

Mmmm. I think if we are faithful to God, that those around us will benefit from our becoming more Christ-like and kind. (Sharon: Yep). They can’t help but be benefited from our— Look at Joseph. He was faithful in prison and his warden benefited from that.

Sharon (28:19):

He sure did.

Nicole (28:19):

The prisoners benefited from that and they were not believers. (Sharon: Right, right) So, if we are, if we stick to our commitments that shows faithfulness. And I think that points ’em to Christ. Cause that’s not a normal thing we do on our own.

Sharon (28:30):

No, it is not. Not at all. Not at all. And we, if we say we’re gonna do something, we should do it.

Nicole (28:35):

Yes.

Sharon (28:35):

We just absolutely should. You know, I was thinking, this is silly, but I really think showing faithfulness about mowing our lawn is good because, you know, we live in a neighborhood, you don’t so much. (NIcole: Oh yeah) We live in a neighborhood where everybody has to walk past our yard. (Oh yeah) Right. Your yards all kind of meld into one in some places, yeah. Right. Exactly. And to be a good neighbor is to, I mean, we definitely don’t win yard of the month, but we keep it mowed. (Right, you keep it tidy) and we don’t have, you know, trash cans littering the lawn. (Right. Right) I I think part of showing faithfulness is doing due diligence as a good neighbor. (Yeah) You know, and that shows it too. And to not do that shows the opposite. It shows someone that is not faithful in small things. Cause God does want us faithful in small things as well.

Nicole (29:21):

Yeah. It starts there with those little things, doesn’t it?

Sharon (29:24):

Yeah, yeah. It makes a difference. Feel like though, we were talking about faithfulness and marriage, we should say one thing to the people that are listening going, I’m divorced. Because here we are rattling on about, you know, my wonderful parents are staying, our parents are still married. We’re still married.

Nicole (29:36):

Yes.

Sharon (29:36):

So let me just say this. We haven’t walked in your shoes. (Nicole: Mmm) And we don’t know what you went through. And we absolutely know that there are times when divorce is unavoidable. (Yes) You cannot help it. And guess what? Even if it was avoidable and you didn’t, there’s this thing called forgiveness. (Yes) That is deep and wide and high and long. God’s love does not change. And there’s always time to be faithful starting now in whatever situation you find yourselves in. So, no false condemnation down on your heads, dear people that might have felt it with what we said. None.

Nicole (30:16):

Yeah. We don’t want that. Absolutely not.

Sharon (30:18):

No, but we do wish you faithfulness in the future in whatever you’re doing. (Nicole: Yes) So there. I just felt like I had to say that.

Nicole (30:24):

No, that’s good.

Sharon (30:25):

So let us pray. Oh, Father, ultimately only you are completely faithful. We all fail in big ways and small ways, but Lord, our heart today is to walk in faithfulness, to be a trustworthy person, to keep our word, to show up, to put aside our own interests and benefit others in faithfulness. So fill us with your Spirit, Lord, give us that fruit that only comes through you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Nicole (30:56):

Amen. We are so thankful for you, our faithful listeners. It is a joy to share our thoughts and hopes and encouragements to you each week on the Sweet Selah Moments Podcast. Would you consider writing a review for us so more people get to hear about this podcast? Become a podcast partner with us by going to SweetSelah.org/donate. And it’s not too late to register for our fall retreat in beautiful New Hampshire right beside Lake Winnipesauke. You can find all the information about the retreat by going to SweetSelah.org and looking for Refuge Retreat 2023. We’d love to meet you there. Next week we’re going to discuss The Surprising Strength of Gentleness in episode 105. Until then, may God help all of us be faithful. Have a great week.

Speaker 1 (31:43):

We are so glad you stopped for a while with us. The Sweet Selah Moments Podcast is a cooperative production of Word Radio and Sweet Selah Ministries. More information about this podcast can be found@sweetselah.org. Thank you for joining us.