Episode 20: The Truth About Faith
Life is marked by the mundane. The daily chores, habits, and routines that create fences around our lives can become lifeless and dry if we don’t allow a vibrant faith to grow within the mundane. We have to remember that Faith is active. It’s a process not a product. A dance…not a destination. When we get discouraged, want to quit, change direction, get bored, and make poor choices—we’re out of faith’s rhythm.
The rhythm of faith includes times of monotony, times of wonder, times of discipline, times of disappointment, and ultimately, the commitment to showing up and doing the right thing regardless of the reward or applause. God moves within this rhythm and we must look at it as a slow dance with our Father.
There’s a woman in the Old Testament known only as “the Shunammite woman.” Her life exhibits a stunning faith rhythm as she lives through a series of jubilant highs and devastating lows. As she moves through Four Faith Rhythms, we see her faith change and grow.
Discovery Faith (2 Kings 4: 8-9)
In this stage we are merely curious and trying to discover what we really think about our beliefs. This woman was both prominent and preceptive. She invited the prophet Elisha into her home for meals—wanting to go deeper and understand more about his faith.
Deliberate Faith (2 Kings 4: 10-17)
This woman “makes room” for the prophet in her home. She gives up a room so he can come and go as he needs to. At some point, we must learn to make room for what God wants to do. If we never make room, our lives may be full or clogged with things that don’t really matter. Her “make room faith” led Elisha to ask what he could do to return the favor. When he learned that she had no child and her husband was old, he told her that the following year she’d hold a son in her arms. One year later she welcomed a baby boy.
Desperate Faith (2 Kings 4: 21-23)
As the boy grew, so did the woman’s faith. One day as her young son was working in the fields, his head began to hurt. Shortly after, he ends up dying in her arms. It was a tragedy and the worst possible disappointment, but her desperate faith brought about a stunning miracle.
Favored Faith (2 Kings 8: 4-6)
After being warned by Elisha of a famine, the woman took her son and went to the land of the Philistines for food. After 7 years there she returned to Israel, hoping to get her land and home back. Through an incredible span of events, we see that God’s timing is miraculous. Not only is her land returned, but the King gives her back-produce and harvest for the past 7 years. When we remain faithful, God brings about breakthrough in our lives from the rhythm of our faith.
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