Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Faithfield Living.
This is your host, Kristenwith Faithfield Living.
This is your host, Kristen.
Today is a solo episode for meand I want to talk about taking another
look or looking again at whatis right in front of us or what is
going on in our lives and whatcan we gain or ascertain or learn
from that?
And we'll look at what doesthe Bible say about looking again,
(00:20):
looking closer and lookingmore carefully at what's around us
or right in front of us orwhat we're doing, hopefully still
believing to happen.
Welcome to Faith FueledLiving, the podcast that equips you
to live well spiritually,emotionally, physically and purposefully.
Each week we'll dive intoconversations and biblical truths
to help you strengthen yourfaith, pursue meaningful work, care
for your whole self, and livein line with what matters most.
(00:44):
Also, I wanted to let youknow, if you haven't already joined
our community beyond thepodcast and you're not getting my
weekly email newsletter, wewould love for you to come join us.
Because each week I shareinspiration, encouragement, biblical
ideas and perspective shiftsfor you to just help you improve
(01:04):
your whole life rooted infaith, rooted in God's truth.
And so I would love for you togo do that.
Grab it at or joinus@kristinfitch.com and you can grab
my free joyful 15 daydevotional under my Workbeck section.
Completely free.
And then you can join my email newsletter.
So I don't know how many ofyou are gardeners, but I have had
an herb garden for many years,probably decades.
(01:27):
And off and on I've done.
I've grown vegetables andthings like that.
So this year I have.
In last year I've grown beans,mostly pole beans, but sometimes
bush beans.
And actually my favorite beanis a rattlesnake bean.
And it's so it's a green bean,but it has like this purplish kind
of specks on it that makes itlook more like snakeskin.
(01:49):
But anyways, the reason Ibring beans up is when I was in the
garden the other day, I wasthinking to myself, every time I
come out to check the beanvines, it's really just a big arch
with just bean plants covering it.
You know, it's.
It almost looks like I'mcamouflaging what's underneath it.
So there's an abundance ofgreen bean plants or vines.
(02:10):
But every time I go out there,I find green beans that I did not
notice the time before.
Now sometimes I see ones thatare really small and they're not
ready to be picked, butGuaranteed, if I go out later in
the day or I go out the nextmorning, there are full size beans
that I did not see.
And I believed that themorning of or the day before I looked
(02:35):
everywhere and saw all thebeans that needed to be picked.
But that isn't the case.
And so I started thinkingabout, wow, you know, we really do
have to look again at so manythings, our perceptions we need to
look at again at the thingsaround us, maybe what we think, what
we're asking God for.
And so as I started to thinkabout those beans on the bean plants
(02:58):
and thinking about, wow, Ihave to look again.
Because every time I look, Isee something new.
I see more, I it is moreplentiful, there's more abundance.
And it made me start thinkingabout what does the Bible say about
look again, what does it tell us?
So I'm going to share with youthree scriptures and examples in
(03:22):
the Bible that talk to usabout looking again.
And it really saying to us,look again in your faith, look again
and be persistent.
And I think it's also saying,look again but keep believing God
for what he says he's going todo and how he's going to work, what
he promises.
Okay, so the first one I wantto talk about is, it's in 1 Kings
(03:45):
18, 43 and 44.
I'm going to pull that up so Ican read part of it to you.
Let's see.
So in 1 Kings 18, the prophetElijah is talking to a woman, I'm
sorry, talking to his servant,and goes and asked him to look for
rain.
Go out to the hill, I think,and look for rain.
So here's what it says.
(04:07):
Go and look toward the sea.
He told a servant.
And he went up and looked.
There is nothing there.
He said seven times.
Elijah said, go back.
The seventh time, the servantreported, a cloud as small as a man's
hand is rising from the sea.
So Elijah said, go and tellAhab, hitch up your chariot and go
down before the rain stops you.
(04:28):
And so it says, meanwhile thesky grew black with clouds and the
wind rose and a heavy rainstarted falling and Ahab rode off
to Jezreel.
Well, here is basically whathappened is when the, when the servant
said, I don't see anything.
And then Elijah said, lookseven times.
And the servant finally sawthe small cloud appear, which then
(04:51):
it started to rain.
He was telling him to keeplooking again, right?
He's saying, have faith thatit will happen.
Right?
Believe God for the promisethat we are going to that it's going
to rain.
I know it's going to rain.
So that was the first oneabout looking again.
(05:11):
Sometimes we don't see it.
Sometimes it doesn't happen asquick as we want.
Right?
What God promises us the nextis, it's in Mark8.25, and it's where
the blind man asked Jesus toheal him.
And so here's what it says.
He took the blind man by thehand and led him outside the village.
(05:31):
When he had spit on the man'seyes and put his hands on him, Jesus
asked, do you see anything?
He looked up and said, I see people.
They look like trees walking around.
Once more, Jesus put his handson the man's eyes.
Then his eyes were opened, hissight was restored, and he saw everything
clearly.
Jesus sent him home saying,don't even go into the village.
(05:54):
So once again, it took asecond time, a second look, for the
blind man to see clearly, forhim to believe that God had healed
him, for his eyes to get into focus.
And I think sometimes that'swhat happens to us.
We believe God for the prayerto be answered or the promise to
(06:15):
happen for a short period.
But then so many times we want.
We don't want to if we don'tsee it happening, if we don't see
how God's working, we don'twant to try to fix our focus.
We don't want to keep oursight focused on God and believing
him and knowing that he'sworking on that promise or that prayer
(06:38):
or whatever it is.
We don't know when that willbe answered.
We don't know how soon.
But he wants us to believehim, even for the impossible.
Okay, the next example is in 2Kings 4:1 through 7.
And it's the story of thewidow who's left with a or facing
crushing debt from when herhusband passed.
So let me pull that up.
(06:58):
But basically this is talkingabout we need to have the faith and
then take action and beobedient to believe God can do impossible
things in any and every situation.
So this is what that says.
The wife of a man from thecompany of the prophets cried out
to Elisha, your servant, myhusband is dead.
(07:20):
And you know that he reveredthe Lord, but now his creditor is
coming to take my two boys ashis slaves.
Elisha replied to her, how canI help you?
Tell me, what do you have inyour house?
Your servant has nothing thereat all, she said, except a small
jar of olive oil.
Elisha said, go around and askall of your neighbors for empty jars.
(07:41):
Don't ask for just A few.
Then go inside and shut thedoor behind you.
And your sons pour oil intoall the jars, and as each is filled,
put it to one side.
She left him and shut the doorbehind her.
And her sons, they brought thejars to her and she kept pouring.
When all the jars were full,she said to her son, bring me another
(08:02):
one.
But he replied, there is not ajar left.
Then the oil stopped flowing.
She went and told the man ofGod, and he said, go sell the oil
and pay your debts.
You and your sons can live onwhat is left.
I love this example about it'snot just look again, right?
It is look again.
Because she didn't have oilthat would have filled all of those
(08:24):
vessels.
But yet there was enough.
It was enough to have abundance.
And so it required her to havefaith and then to take action for
what the prophet was saying toher and be obedient.
That he said, just do this.
And once again, God is sayingto us, turn.
(08:44):
Or I mean, sorry, that's thatscripture saying, turn to God first
listen to what you're beingtold to do.
And in your faithfulness andin your action.
And when we look closely, whenwe look carefully, when we take action,
and we do it out of faith, andwe do it most importantly, I think,
out of belief, we keepbelieving God that He can do miracles,
(09:06):
that he can do the impossible,that he can provide for us, he can
provide for us abundantly.
Even when things seem dire,even when that woman, the widow,
thought she was going to loseher children, after she lost her
husband, after she thought shehad no way, no possible way to pay
off this debt, then somethingthat she already had in her possession
(09:30):
was multiplied and she wasable to live and have, you know,
what she needed to keep hersons and keep her home and keep going.
How amazing is that?
And so I think the idea thatwe need to look again in our lives
both for, like I said, thepromises, for the prayers that were
(09:50):
waiting for them to beanswered, for abundance, but also
we need to look again at our hearts.
We need to look at again, atour perception about things.
We need to think about, howare we seeing God?
Do we see God so powerful andalmighty and all knowing that we
know he is bigger than anyproblem, any circumstance that we
(10:13):
are walking through, because Iknow that myself and so many of us
tend to see God as smallerthan he is.
We see our problems as somighty, and we focus on the problem
instead of focusing on the Godthat can conquer all.
And so I bring this up toshare that with you.
And to remind you and toencourage you, look again and to
(10:36):
ask yourself, what do I needto look again at in my life?
What do I need to believe God for?
Do I need to believe in abigger way?
Do I, do I need to where do Ineed to grow my faith and believe
God for everything that he cando and will do in my life?
God also wants us to praisehim for the prayers we're asking
(10:58):
for him as if he's alreadydone the work, right?
He wants us to have so muchbelief that we know and we are believing
him, that he is.
It is done right, that it hasalready been done, even if we don't
see it yet in our human timeline.
And the last thing I would sayis I read something pretty interesting
(11:20):
the other day that was.
It was a biblical financeperson, and they were explaining
that there is often timeswhere we have a skill, a talent,
an ability, maybe a resourceright in front of us, but we do not
recognize it for somethingthat can create more abundance in
(11:43):
our life.
And there's obviously otherexamples in the Bible of this.
But I just remind you, if welook again at everything with new
eyes, you know, look at themfrom a biblical, biblical perspective,
what can we see?
How can we find that what wealready have, a resource we already
have, a talent we alreadyhave, can be turned into more and
(12:05):
especially more for the kingdom.
And so I just want toencourage you today and remind you.
So I just want to encourageeach of us to just look again, to
pay attention, to change ourperspective, to reread or to pray
on or meditate on God's Word.
(12:25):
And actually a practice thatthis reminds me of is one where you
actually read the same Bibleverse three times, which is called
lectio divina, which meansdivine reading or sacred reading.
But it's basically four steps.
And what it is is you read thepassage slowly and carefully, often
more than one time, and you'rekind of looking for what stands out
(12:46):
to you.
Is it a word or a phrase?
And then you just take time toreflect and meditate on that word
or phrase that caught your attention.
You know, that maybe God'strying to show you or speak to you.
And then you respond to God bypraying to him, by, you know, thinking
(13:06):
about or sharing what you.
What's come up for you forthat reading.
And then last is justcontemplating it.
So going beyond what the, whatthe words are that you were pulled
out from that scripture andjust, you know, sit with it, just,
you know, let it kind of getinto your soul and so once again,
that practice is another wayto look again, right?
(13:28):
Or to let it get inside of you.
Because when we read scriptureone time, or a devotional, which
I do regularly, I mean, read adevotional, it may not hit, right?
Or we don't give it enoughtime to settle for us to notice.
So really, when we say lookagain, we're saying, look closer.
(13:49):
Look more carefully.
Be obedient and take the timeto hear God trying to speak to us.
And then how is he promptingus in our lives to take action and
to be obedient in faith?
And so that's maybe one littlething you can try if you've never
tried, that is doing that, youknow, reading the scripture three
(14:11):
times and walking throughthose steps.
But once again, that is whatGod's saying, right?
It's just look again and keepbelieving him for what he tells us.
Keep building our faith, right?
We want to look again at allof this part of our lives.
We want to look again at whatscripture's saying to us and what
it's speaking to us.
(14:31):
Until next time, I hope youhave a great week.
If you enjoyed today'sepisode, if you could leave a rating
review on Apple Podcast orwherever you listen to podcasts,
it helps the show getdiscovered by more people so that
we can continue to uplift andencourage people in their faith journey
as well as all of the otherparts of their lives.