Faithfulness with Glenna Marshall
On today’s episode we’re chatting with Glenna Marshall about faithfulness. This is such a rich episode coming off Thanksgiving and moving into this Advent season! Praise God that in spite of our faithlessness, he is faithful! And he fulfilled all of his promises to us in the person of his Son, Jesus. We pray that you guys are encouraged to look to Jesus, especially in this season, and that your faith is bolstered as you reflect on the ways God has been faithful to both to his people throughout redemptive history and in the ways that he has been faithful to you personally, especially as you reflect upon this year in particular.
So you’ll know her a little better, Glenna Marshall is married to her pastor, William, and lives in rural southeast Missouri, where she tries to keep up with her two energetic sons. She is the author of The Promise is His Presence and Everyday Faithfulness. You can connect with her at glennamarshall.com, where she writes about suffering, biblical literacy, and God's faithfulness, which is what we’re talking about today.
Can you tell us a little about who you are and what you do?
What is faithfulness?
What does it mean to be faithful?
Who is our picture of faithfulness?
What was the ultimate expression of God's faithfulness to us?
The reality is, we're an unfaithful people. What (or who) is it that even enables us to walk in faithfulness?
What is the appropriate response when we realize that we've been unfaithful?
What is our hope when we fail?
What can suffering and hardship teach us about what it means to be faithful?
How does this attribute work together with the other attributes we see listed in the fruit of the Spirit passage?
THREE QUESTIONS I ASK EVERY GUEST
What 3 resources would you recommend for someone who wants to learn more about faithfulness?
What are your 3 simple joys?
Who has had the greatest impact on your own journey with Jesus?
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES
“When we look at the character of God throughout all of Scripture, he is constant.”
“God continually keeps his promises.”
“God is constant, unchanging, and always the same. He is the same God from the first page to the last. He is reliable and we can always turn back to him no matter what is going on in our lives.”
“Be who you are. Live as who God has called you to be and as who he has equipped you to be.”
“Being steadfast and holding fast to our faith requires some action on our part.”
“If we want to arrive at long-term faithfulness to Jesus later, we have to start with faithfulness to Jesus today, feeding our faithfulness while it is called today.”
“Any faithfulness that is growing in my life is fruit of the Spirit’s work in my life. I cannot get there by myself. That begins in the Lord’s work at the cross.”
“God has given us prayer, the Word, and the Church to help us maintain faithfulness to him. And we have the Holy Spirit living in us.”
“Let’s submit ourselves to the ways he has given us to be faithful to him because those things are a protection from wandering away from him.”
“All of the promises he made in the Old Testament, he fulfilled them in Jesus at the cross.”
“God gave us freedom from our sin, the promise of eternal life, and free access to him.”
“It is through Jesus that we can boldly approach the father.”
“The Lord is sanctifying us as we walk with him but we are not perfect and will not be perfect until we see him face to face. We will forget about him. We will dethrone him for lesser things at times. He is always near but sometimes we distance our hearts from him. Faithfulness is confessing your sin, repenting, and picking right back up where you left off.”
“A life of faithfulness is marked by daily repentance.”
“Faithfulness is the soil where spiritual growth happens.”
“The prosperity gospel is performing for a particular outcome, which is different from obeying Christ no matter how difficult it is.”
“For those who are in Christ, faithfulness is proof of life - that you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.”
“There is nothing in my life that is secure [outside of Christ].”
“If he is enough for me when my life is unraveling, then he is enough until I see him face to face.”
“Sometimes we look at obedience as drudgery, but there is no more joyful place in life than to be obedient to Christ. There is much joy the Lord grows in your heart when you are submitting your desires to his desires.”
“The Lord is faithful to us, always.”
“For the Christian, Jesus is our survival on the path of faithfulness.”
RESOURCES
Develop a habit of being in the Word
Connection to the Church
Devoted by Tim Challies
John G. Paton - The Autobiography of the Pioneer Missionary to the New Hebrides
The Roots of Endurance by John Piper
Get to know the older Christians in your church
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What is faithfulness?
How has God revealed his faithfulness throughout all of redemptive history?
Where have you seen God’s faithfulness in your life recently?
How are we able to walk in faithfulness knowing we are an unfaithful people?
What will abiding in Christ look like for you this week?
SCRIPTURE MEMORY
“let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:22-25
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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