Podcast
Ep #65 Trusting God with Frequent Moves and Military Life. Beth Runkle
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From Today's Episode
Beth Runkle was rescued from bitterness and discontentment when she came to know Jesus and discovered she had a purpose and calling on her life that involved serving alongside her husband in the military. Through 14 moves, adoptions, infertility, and living in places she wouldn’t have chosen, Beth discovered the faithfulness and goodness of God.
Today's Verses
- Genesis 12-22
- Psalm 40:1-2
Additional Resources
Trusting God with Frequent Moves and Military Life. Beth Runkle
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Unshakable Hope Podcast, where real life intersects redeeming love. I’m Kellie Hall, and this is where we wrestle through faith questions, such as how do I trust God’s heart when His ways and delays are breaking mine? We’ll hear from people just like you and me, who have experienced God’s faithfulness when life didn’t unfold as they expected.
My prayer is that God would renew our hope in His Word and His love through these conversations.
Kelly: Hey friends, I am so glad you’re here with me today. Beth Runkle is my guest. She’s a new friend who has served alongside her husband in the military for many years, so we have a lot in common. Beth and her husband serve with Cru military. She came to faith through a Bible study she attended many years ago, which God used to rescue her marriage, and then that evolved into ministry to the [00:01:00] military. She’s been teaching the Bible for more than 20 years. She’s earned her master’s degree from Gateway Seminary. Beth just released a book for military wives called Another Move God, 30 Encouragements to Embrace Your Life as a Military Wife
I can so relate to that title, Beth. Although I do think you’ve moved more times than we have. Welcome to the podcast. I am so glad you’re here.
Beth: Thank you. It’s such an honor to be here with your audience.
Kelly: Yeah. You’re the first person I’ve had on who has a lot of the same military background that we do. Our husbands probably know a lot of the same people. We probably know a lot of the same people. If we could have a longer conversation, we’d dig them all up. But I’m thankful for our time.
Why don’t you start Beth, by telling us about your family.
Beth: Sure. Well, as you mentioned, I’m a military spouse, but my husband and I now serve in full time ministry to the military here in Colorado Springs. [00:02:00] I have two kids. They are both miracles, one by birth and one by adoption.
Always wanted more children but that wasn’t God’s plan. But because of the ministry that we do with cadets at the Air Force Academy, I constantly have young people in my home.
And I always say that I have an empty nest because both my kids are in college, but lots of birdies visit my nest often.
And I really think that’s part of God’s provision for me. He wanted me to have all these spiritual children and I love, you know, the ministry that God has chosen for me.
And honestly being a part of young adults lives that are not your children that you didn’t raise from their little years is really just a tremendous blessing because I am the age of their parents but I’m not their parents and they really want my wisdom. They want., to be around me and they want to be a part of my life.
So, it’s just another lesson, that God’s plan is always best.
Kelly: You can [00:03:00] probably say things that they would not hear from their parents.
Beth: Oh, absolutely. I had one cadet after parents weekend. I said, Hey, how did parents weekend go?
She said, good. I told my mom all about you and how I’m meeting with you now. She has a list of things that she would like for you to discuss with me. And as she goes over the list, I’m like, this mom is a smart woman. She has said, I will let Beth tell her the hard things. But here was the cadet ready with her pen and paper to take notes.
Kelly: That is so crazy. Well you have moved what, 14 times in your 25 years?
Beth: 14 times during the time my husband was on active duty. So we’ve actually moved more than that, but
those were the big moves. I calculated it, I think it was like every one and a half years on average that we moved. So, I’m really good at unpacking boxes and setting up a house in a quick amount of time.
Not a skill that you really need for a lot of things though.
Kelly: Right, me [00:04:00] too. I could get a house completely unpacked in two days and stuff on the wall. The third day.
Beth: Oh, wow. You’ve got me beat.
Kelly: Well, we I didn’t move as often as you though, but we did move every two to three years, but you know, Beth, we had to live apart because of my kids special needs. So you know, when your husband’s do those one year schools for their career, right?
Beth: So we
went with all of those. And that’s. Partly why we have so many moves. And I actually think like, truly, I was a control freak and I want to be a control of all of our life.
And, at the beginning of my life, married to a man in the military, I was not a believer. And I think that moving was Part of God’s transformational process in me to say, okay, so you’re going to try to hold on everything of this world. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to keep taking it away from you so that you have nothing to cling to, but me.
Kelly: That was a hard lesson. I bet.
Beth: Yeah, it’s not [00:05:00] exactly something you signed up for
Kelly: exactly. I’m wondering if you want to just tell us about your faith journey. I’d love to hear that and include what you were just talking about that, you know, letting go of control.
Beth: Yes. So, I met my husband at a wedding.
I was a bridesmaid. He was a groomsman. Yes, it does happen. And we dated long distance for two years. And my husband, And I were living in either different parts of the country or the world, either for my job or his work. And he did change career fields from the time that we were dating. Because he decided to become a pilot.
And his previous job was a desk job and he didn’t work particularly long hours. It really was kind of just like a normal job, eight to five, you know,
Kelly: Yeah.
Beth: And he had not prepared me at all for what it might be to marry someone in the military. And I really I’m thankful for that because of my control issues.
I think I would have been like, you know, you’re a really great guy, but like, wow, this is going to be [00:06:00] hard and like, I don’t want to sign up for that. And God knew that. And so I think in his sovereignty, he was like, So we’re not going to give her any information because, you know, this is our plan for her.
So God was
Kelly: going to surprise you with all of the moves later on.
Beth: So we actually moved three times our first year marriage.
Kelly: Wow. And then we
Beth: showed up at his first operational assignment as a pilot and he, we unpacked boxes and then he deployed to the Middle East. And so I really just found myself thinking like, what in the world have I gotten myself into?
You know, I’m alone. And that whole assignment there was just really hard because he deployed four times. He also went to squadron officer school during that time. So that used to be seven weeks. That was another time he was gone. And then we were on the coast and hurricanes came through a lot.
And I know you know this, but probably your listeners don’t. So when a hurricane comes There’s jets that are multimillion dollar vehicles. When the hurricane comes, your husband [00:07:00] and the rest of the people who fly with him, the men and the women, they bravely fly those jets away and they leave you at home to deal with the hurricane, the flooding, the lack of electricity.
And so that happened a number of times as well. So, yeah.
Kelly: You’re kind of abandoned in the storms, right?
Beth: I mean, and you’re kind of just like, okay, so I’m young, I’m newly married and now like you’re going to leave. Yeah, it was hard. And so I really found myself, I had been very career minded. Wasn’t a believer.
I found myself selfish and bitter and really resentful not only of the military, but of my husband. And sadly, you know, I let him know how displeased I was with the inconvenience that the military was on my life, in our life. And I let him know that often. And so as you can imagine, marriage was not going real great and the majority of it was my fault because when he was [00:08:00] home.
You know, I was nagging and bitter and resentful. And so we did move again. We also moved early quite a few times. Uh, so out of cycle and we moved again this time. It was a hard move for me because we moved to a small town and I had worked for a large international company and I couldn’t do that in the middle of nowhere.
But at that location is when God really began to get our attention. I mentioned marriage was hard. So we were trying to figure this out. We were committed, but we had no faith to lean on. But there, my husband ran into some people that were also pilots who he had gone to school with and they invited us to get involved in.
A Bible study and it was a Bible study on Genesis and it started in Genesis 12 with Sarah’s life.
And
I had never opened up the pages of scripture for myself before I grew up in a very [00:09:00] loving church attending home, but we did not really talk about God throughout the week. I had not been taught to read the Bible.
To read my Bible or to even own a Bible. So the very first time that I began to study scripture, it was in Sarah’s story. And I feel like that is one of the ways that the Lord showed me that he sees me, because he would ordain. The very first place that I would open scripture, I saw my life in Sarah and I, our normal person might not see that, but you know, I’m not a normal person.
I was a military spouse. But when God told Sarah and Abraham to go to a land that he would show them. That’s what me and we in the military call a PCS or a permanent change of station. And you know, Sarah and Abraham were doing that often. Transition was very normal for them.
God
called them to Canaan and they went to Bethel, they went down to Egypt, they came back to Bethel, [00:10:00] they did Oaks of the Marm, they went back to Egypt.
Only they were moving, you know, with on the backs of camels and donkeys, like I at least had movers and moving vans. So it kind of showed me like, wow, maybe I can’t complain anymore. But then, you know, on top of that. Abraham was a warrior. He went off and fought in combat. And again, you might not think of that, but Abraham went off to rescue his nephew lot with his 318 trained men.
And he went and fought against four Kings and their armies and combat back then it was brutal hand to hand combat. So imagine like Braveheart. Yeah, that’s what it was like. And so Sarah would have stayed at home. You know, in her tent, I’m imagining praying. And then on top of that, here was Abraham.
Abraham was in Sarah with the very first Israelites starting the nation of Israel, which was God’s very own people. And Abraham was called to be a leader for his nation. But also for God. And so in [00:11:00] those pages, I saw myself so incredibly seen. And for the first time, I understood, you know, the plan of salvation to understand that I am a sinner who needed to be saved.
I think prior to that, my view of. Heaven was very skewed. I kind of thought there was a scale in heaven with my name on it. And as long as I, you know, wasn’t an ax murderer, I did more good things than bad things. Like, you know, I was a good person. But as I studied scripture, I realized like, wow, that is not at all God’s standard.
God’s standard, you know, is for the wages of sin is death. Even if you’ve only sinned one time, right. What you get for what you’ve done. is separation from God. But Jesus came and died in our place and took our penalty on our behalf. And all we have to do is place faith in him. And that was the first time that I really understood the importance of what Jesus did, why he did it.
And that I needed to receive him and believe in him, not just an intellectual faith, but place my life [00:12:00] under his and place him as the authority. And my husband believed it also. So we both surrendered our lives to Christ and then at less than a year later, we went to a marriage conference, which is with family life.
It’s called their weekend to remember that’s actually part of crew, which is the ministry I serve with now.
Kelly: We did one of those as well.
Beth: Yeah, it was great. But it blew our mind because our view of marriage at this point was just what the world said. I mean, honestly, I’d been schooled in marriage by a romantic comedy.
I like a good romantic comedy, but it is not very good marriage advice, right? I had kind of previously seen marriage as a contract, you know, 50 50 you know, you do your part, I’ll do mine. And I understood that, you know, it was a covenant between. The Lord and your spouse and you, and that the way we act in marriage is not a response to the way our spouses acted to us.
It’s really a response to Jesus [00:13:00] Christ and what he did for us. And I understood that. There’s this drift towards isolation and Satan wants to divide us. I saw my selfishness. I saw my bitterness. I saw how it’s being disrespectful to my husband by complaining nonstop about the military. So it really transformed our marriage.
And my husband had lots of transformation as well. And we were at this conference in the closing session, they did a pitch from the platform, you know, Hey, if you’ve learned some great. Principles here. We have these small group guides and they’re like, you know, 8. You can take these back with you and start using them.
And so we said, this is great stuff and we have to start sharing this with others. So we took that back to our little base in Mississippi and we started leading small group marriage studies in our home. And we did that throughout the rest of our 12 moves. It’s really what we felt God called us to do because we found that there were many people in the military community who are struggling in marriage, right?
Marriage is hard in general, but [00:14:00] military marriage might be a little bit harder when you add in all the transition, all the moving, the times apart you know, just all the challenges. Yes. The fear, which is a huge issue. So, And so that’s what we began doing. And through that process, God really took that bitter, selfish woman who was like, I don’t like this.
And first of all, God caused me to see that my husband’s job was not just a job, that when a man or a woman serves in uniform, that it’s really a calling and a calling is a special. duty or obligation that someone feels that they must fulfill. So that was transformational for me to understand that my husband had a calling to serve his nation, but also if God and his sovereignty, again, he didn’t want me to know about what I was signing up for because I wouldn’t have done it In his sovereignty, he had allowed me to marry this man.
So that meant. That I too had a calling on my life
Kelly: and it
Beth: looked a little [00:15:00] different. I didn’t put the uniform on, I didn’t go on deployment, I didn’t carry big weapons but I had a calling on my life to reach those in my midst and all those locations that we would live at with the good news of Jesus Christ.
And you know, I could be a light in that community. And so really that our family, you know, just changed our perspective that it wasn’t. Just about us anymore that we were really on mission together and it just, we happen to be being moved around and transported quite a bit. I might add as part of that mission and as part of what God’s purpose was for us as our family.
Now, the only other thing I guess I can add in there that happened through out this journey is we also are an infertile couple and that is there was a lot of waiting. And that is another way that God drew us to himself was through the experience of infertility and having really [00:16:00] to rely on the Lord.
We had through this process God opened our eyes to the beauty of adoption and specifically internationally adopted children. And so God led us to adopt our first child. From Russia when it was open, it wasn’t open for very long, but we adopted our first child from Russia and we really very much felt called to do that
, that’s my son. And he just graduated from college.
Beth: And then. The summer before we had brought our son home, we were doing the paperwork and we very much felt called that we were to adopt our 1st child. And, you know, we’re really looking forward to it, but I think there was a part of me that felt like it might be 2nd best.
Like, there was still this desire to have a child and I was doing a Bible study. We were looking at Jeremiah and Jeremiah. Yeah. Well, it was a hard truth from Jeremiah, but God dramatically used it in my life. But God revealed to me through that study that I had not given him full, complete [00:17:00] control of everything in my life, right?
I had surrendered my life to him, but fertility drugs was still an idol in my life. It was still something I was placing my trust in. And even though we were not pursuing that at that time. God told me, Hey, this is an idol in your life. And I agreed with him and I’m not saying that is that case for everybody, right?
I am not against fertility treatments or drugs, but for me in this specific situation, I felt like God was saying, you are putting your hope and your trust in this more than me. And so I agreed with God and I said, okay, God, but you’re going to have to help me because this is going to be really hard.
Kelly: Yeah.
And I’m going to just interrupt for a second so I can relate to that so much because with all of our moves, my husband and I had to live apart a lot of times to meet our. Children’s special needs. So for several different long periods of time, I lived in St. Louis, our girls got cochlear implants.
We went to this really good school. [00:18:00] And then God showed me that school and my plan was an idol to me. As well. And it was not for everybody that was there, but God was calling me to move again with my husband and to just trust him to meet my girl’s needs instead of putting all my trust in the perfect school and the perfect plan with the perfect therapist.
And so that is a place of surrender that all of us come to in our lives. Don’t you think? That
Beth: was something. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And so again, I’m, I’ve only been a believer a few years at this point, but I had just read Mark nine which is the account of a man who brings his son to Jesus. And it’s like, Hey, can you heal him?
He had, he was possessed by demon. And he says, if you can heal him, will you? And he’s like, if I can, he says Do you believe in the man says, I do believe, but help my unbelief and I feel like that’s where I was like, I just read that and I was like, okay, [00:19:00] God, I do believe, but help my unbelief, like, help me.
So we adopted our son, we brought him home. And just, I was really just overwhelmed with love joy, just contentment with, that God had caused, that someone can be born all the way across the world and that God would choose us to be his parents.
Kelly: So sweet.
Beth: And I just said, okay, Lord, I’m ready to lay it down. You know, no more fertility drugs for me. I said, you know, you, I really, I literally remember saying, God, you might make me pregnant when I’m 40, which, you know, back then was a long ways away. Obviously it’s in the rear view mirror.
Now I said, or you might not ever make me pregnant or you might make me pregnant tomorrow. And I said, but I’m okay with that because I trust your plan because your plan, like for me to have this baby, I’m holding right now. Your plan is beautiful and good. And so I shared that with my husband that night, you know, and it’s just like, no more like we’re done and we began the process [00:20:00] to start another adoption
so, we started the paperwork process and my issue with having children was that I didn’t ovulate regularly.
Kelly: Okay.
Beth: . And I had not ovulated on my own since I’d been a teenager. And I got pregnant the next month after we surrendered, future fertility to God. He did not do it again, but it was an absolute miracle and so when I took, and I showed my doctor, you know, like, Hey, this is when it happened. He said, there’s no medical explanation for why you’re pregnant. This is totally the work of God in your life.
Kelly: The doctor gave God the credit.
Beth: Well, he was a believer. That’s the daughter that you met.
At the conference.
Kelly: Yes. Yes. So I met Beth’s daughter and she is just a delight in what I did not know this miracle behind her birth. That’s so beautiful. How God formed your family, how he led you and your husband into a [00:21:00] calling that you didn’t understand was a calling. You didn’t even know him.
And I think that’s an important point to make about the Lord. Also that he guides us and speaks to us even before we know what he’s up to. That’s just a beautiful story of God’s intervention in your life, God’s protection in your life, and how God rescued you both when your marriage was really. Falling apart.
Neither of you, you were mentioning you were bitter. That’s what I was super bitter. Yeah. And God rescued you from bitterness. That was destroying you and destroying your marriage and then took you through these seasons of really deep surrender with the moving, with the fertility, and then both your husband and you were filled with a passion to teach other people about this God of the Bible who changed your life.
Beth: Absolutely.
Kelly: Well, through all of these moves, you’ve just [00:22:00] described so much about trusting God in uncertainty, but you’ve intentionally just pressed into the Lord after you came to know him. And there were ongoing moves . And there were also deployments where your husband’s life was At risk.
And so I just want to talk a little bit more about how the Lord taught you to trust his sovereignty.
Beth: Well, I do think that , a privilege of being a military spouse is that we have a lot of opportunity where our life is out of our control. You know, obviously our infertility was our biggest one.
And we did have future problems with infertility as well, but you know, then you just have the normal, you get an assignment to the place that was at the bottom of your list and that happens. Like more than once. Yes.
Kelly: So for my listeners, I want to mention that before you move your husband or your spouse that’s in the military has an opportunity to fill out a dream sheet where they place in order [00:23:00] the places that they would like to be moved.
So you’re talking about how sometimes it would turn out that your very last option, the one you least wanted, that was where you ended up moving.
Beth: Yeah. So that happened to us a couple of times. We did a remote assignment in Korea. You start to learn that God has an assignment for you there.
And that’s why you got the last choice or that’s why you have to go there. So. I think one of the things that I clung to early on as a believer and understanding the sovereignty of God, which just means that God is in control of everything. Yes. As I used to say to myself, when my husband might get deployment orders that we didn’t expect or moving earlier, moving to that place we want to go.
I would say out loud, God outranks even the generals. Yes. So I really just clung to that, that, you know, this is not what we wanted, but this is what God wants for us. Because either he has something for us to do or he has people to impact us [00:24:00] or usually both.
Yeah. And so you just have to say, okay. And honestly. You know, for example, in Korea, we grew tremendously spiritually during our two years there, and also had so much opportunity to be bold about the gospel because it was such a small close knit community and there weren’t a lot of believers.
So we were kind of thrust into some leadership positions that maybe we wouldn’t have done. You know, in a more comfortable safe environment. So we grew so much, just all the people we interacted with, you know, in the place that you think by the world standards that you don’t want to go ends up being the best places that you want because of the people that you met and you interacted with, and then also you’re just, you’re leaning on God because
That isn’t in your control. Right,
Kelly: right. I felt like I was a control freak when my [00:25:00] husband and I first married and the verse that the Lord impacted on my heart when I said, I’m so stressed out. There’s no peace in my life. That’s a fruit of the spirit.
So give me one verse to focus on. I need help. I’m desperate to live differently, to experience you in deeper ways. And he gave me Proverbs three, five, and six, which says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don’t lean on your own understanding. All your ways acknowledge him, know him, look to him and he will direct your paths.
And that was a huge place of surrender for me. And the fact that knowing God was in control, knowing God was in control of the generals, God was in control of Washington and military policies was. A place of surrender that brought so much peace to my heart. When my husband was deployed and he was in, he was there during the Cobar Tower [00:26:00] bombing when a terrorist bomb exploded.
And we, and then he ended up staying. We never knew when they were going to come home three times. They loaded up everything. They were stuck. We were told they were coming home. They were told you’re going home. And then they said, nope, changed your mind. And they had to unpack everything. And my husband said, grown men and women had tears running down their face.
There was so much disappointment, you know, that they weren’t going home and wives at home wouldn’t even tell their kids. Yeah. Well,
Beth: you actually learn not to do that. It’s safer.
Kelly: It’s safer. Yeah.
Beth: Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly: But that was the biggest lesson that God taught me was Kelly. My sovereign hand extends into your home as well as around the globe, as well as into Washington DC.
You can trust me and your husband is just as safe around the globe than he would be right in your own house because his life is in my hands. I’ve got him. So that was a huge place of surrender for me. [00:27:00] We can trust God. He sees everything. He sees us. He’s with us and he’s for us.
Beth: Well, I also think it’s so often, right? We have disappointments, things that we wanted that don’t work out.
Kelly: Yeah.
Beth: Timing that doesn’t work out. And I’ve really come to see. As I’ve been around a few years. That is God’s absolute protection. The times that he said no was his protection over me because he had something better.
And you know, a lot of times he just protected me from harmful things.
So, you know, I remember one time we were driving in the car and my son was probably, you know, Six years old and I was caught in traffic and I was late and I was frustrated. And he’s back there in his booster seat and he said, mom, why are you fretting?
He said,
Kelly: fretting. He used the word fretting.
Beth: Why are you fretting? Well, he said, mom, God is probably protecting us from our car accident. Just get there. When you get there. I was like, I just got schooled by my six year [00:28:00] old, but it was so true. Right. It would just, it was a small thing that wasn’t going according to my plan.
Kelly: Yeah. When you’re dealing with the military, there are so many things that are unpredictable.
Beth: Oh, absolutely.
Kelly: Our favorite joke was you’ll show up to an appointment. Then you’ll see a sign. We are closed to serve you better. And that was the biggest joke in our family. When we would get disappointed, even before we would leave to go somewhere on the base, we would all say, all right, well, just know we might end up seeing a sign that says we’re closed to serve you better.
So let’s just get prepared for disappointment. But the, what you said about waiting on the Lord is so hard. And we know God doesn’t make us wait any longer than it takes to bring about his perfect will and to bring about his greatest glory, and we will see him bring all things together for good in our life, even through these long delays that we don’t.
[00:29:00] Understand. So I’m wondering, I don’t know, Beth, do you have another story about some ways that God strengthened you during a waiting season when maybe you were feeling discontent or afraid or worried?
Beth: Yeah. Well, I mean, I think waiting is just, it’s a huge part of the military life.
Like you wait on orders, you wait on an assignment, you wait for your spouse to return home. You wait for, you’re going to move next.
Yeah.
And I think obviously the longest amount of time that I waited, you know, was for children,
Kelly: yeah.
Beth: And what I’ve come to realize is that in God’s kitchen, he doesn’t have microwaves. He has crockpots and we want a microwave but God is waiting. He’s got the right timing because he wants us to have the muscles of patience and faith that we are gonna need later. You know, that the waiting that we had for our children that is when my character was shaped the most.[00:30:00]
Where I learned the most about God, and honestly, that’s when I fell in love with God because I so desperately needed him. And so even if you’re looking at Sarah and Abraham’s life, right, they had tremendous times of waiting you know, is 25 years before they got the child of the promise. But there is so much that God was doing in Sarah and Abraham’s life as the very first people of the nation of him, you know, that he was doing, that he was building their character, you know, and if you look at the end of Sarah’s life you know, right before she dies in the scriptures is the account of when God tells.
Abraham to take his son, his only son, whom he loves and to sacrifice him and Abraham is able to do that because he has really big muscles of faith by that point, because of all that Sarah and Abraham have gone through. And when I wrote the book I do I’m very passionate about understanding the culture of the original times that the scripture was written to understand it [00:31:00] better.
And I just want to add a little bit about the story because I found it fascinating. You know, the, again, I’ve, I got saved in these pages of Genesis and I’m reading this and I’m like, this is crazy. Why would God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son? You know, it just seems so odd to us. Yeah. But. If you understand in their culture at that time, they were pagans, right?
They worshiped. There were many gods they worshiped and their gods were associated with their location. So you had local gods and it was, you would not move with your God. You had idols. They were actual physical things. And when you move to a new location, which wasn’t near as common, you stayed where you’re from.
You stayed with your family. But when God calls them to leave where they are to follow him, first of all, this is mind blowing. This has never happened before. Could you leave your local gods? But they also, they left behind those gods, [00:32:00] those idols to go and actually follow God to this. New place that he was calling them and he would go with them.
But all of the pagan gods that they had at this time in the world, all required human sacrifice. Wow. And they all required them to sacrifice their children. So I think God realizes now Abraham is ready.
Now his faith is strong and I will show him that I am not like the other gods. And the way that he does that is he actually asked Abraham, okay. It’s time you are gonna sacrifice your son. And he obeys but you know what? God says, I am not like all the other gods because I do require sacrifice, but it will be my son, not yours, Abraham. And I am unique and I am different, and I can be trusted. [00:33:00]
And
so it was just dramatic for me to understand, how significant this was and why God would have asked it.
And I think it was just like mind blowing. I can just imagine. Abraham running after, you know, God is different. But Abraham was not ready for that test of faith until he had waited.
For the child of promise and gone through the, let’s try to do it our way and have a child by Hagar, right? He was not ready until he had built all that spiritual muscle and then he was ready. I mean, and think about Hebrews 11, there are multiple paragraphs. About the faith of Abraham, nobody gets quite as many words in that Hebrews 11 hall of faith, especially if you consider that Sarah is also mentioned.
When you put Sarah and Abraham’s content it by far outweighs anyone else that is. [00:34:00] Mention in the Hebrews hall of faith, that’s
Kelly: Hebrews chapter 11, and it’s surprising to see how these are not perfect people. God is not calling us to be perfect. He is just showing us a way. Where we get to experience his presence and his love and his abundance. He’s trying to set them free from idols, from false thoughts, just like he does for us and also wanted to mention as to your story, that’s fascinating, but the little G gods that they worshiped, which demons, there were no other gods.
There is one true God, only one God. And he was trying to differentiate between their myths and their demon worship that they didn’t understand. That no, none of that applies to you. I am the one true God and I care about you and I’m caring for you. But Abraham’s faith was amazing. Yes. God had grown his faith muscles. And I love that God does that. He doesn’t just throw us into the deep end. [00:35:00] He knows how we are. And he very slowly shows us over and over again. See, I’m faithful there.
See, I’m faithful in this delay. See, I’m faithful in this harder thing, and we learn to trust him. One thing I really love about your book, and I’m going to repeat the name of it Another Move God. I love that title, Another Move God, 30 Encouragements to Embrace Your Life as a Military Wife.
But I love at the end of every devotional day that you showcase a name of God, a characteristic of God that shows how he deals with us. He is actively and intentionally and powerfully involved in every single detail of our lives and we can trust him. Right. And
Beth: he’s personal. That’s why he has names.
He’s personal and he wants to be personal to us and we to him.
Kelly: It’s beautiful.
Nothing Is impossible with God. What we see as impossible is not an obstacle to God. He doesn’t even break a sweat doing the things that we [00:36:00] consider impossible. So why don’t you just talk to us a little bit as we close about how God taught you that he can do anything?
Beth: Well, I just think there’s lots of, hard things we face in life. , and when, in the book I cover Genesis in order. And so it’s detailing how God gave Sarah Abraham a child, , when they were advanced in age, , Sarah was beyond childbearing age.
So to me, that indicates that she’s gone through menopause. It’s miraculous. He’s given her a child when it is beyond all belief. But what I realized when I was studying this in detail is it’s not just a child. He also gives her the ability to nurse a child which also a menopausal body you know, cannot do.
And even in Genesis 1813 in the account of when the visitors come to the tent and they tell Abraham, you know that this time next year you’ll have a son and Sarah, [00:37:00] you know, chuckles and really laughing in disbelief. Yeah. And they. The messengers respond, is anything too hard for the Lord,
and then it’s stated very similarly in Matthew that nothing is too hard for the Lord. And I think, as we look at. Sarah and Abraham’s life, this absolutely impossible thing that God has done. We learn a lot about God as we study, as they’re waiting for him to do that impossible, you know, number one, we’ve kind of already talked about that, there is some waiting.
God’s not in haste to work out his plans. I think we forget that like, he’s not bound by time. We are. Amen. Right. We’re linear and we think time, but like God is outside of time. He can see the beginning from the end and all the things, and he knows what’s going to mature us. So he’s not in haste and then nothing can impede God’s purpose.
That’s what it means when he’s sovereign, nothing can impede him. We [00:38:00] actually can’t mess up God’s purpose. Nothing can get in that way. And God is faithful. And kind of my point here of the God of the impossible is that there are times when We are just weak in our faith and we’re struggling.
Kelly: And I
Beth: tell a story in the book about an impossible situation I had with my teen daughter and I was just struggling in my faith, but I knew that I needed to go be with my sisters, my military spouse sisters and Protestant women in the chapel who I study the Bible with. And I went that day and I pretty much wept through the whole study and I did not participate at all.
I just was weak and what God did,
Kelly: You were heartbroken that day, but you still went
Beth: I still went because I still know that I want to be close to God and that being with God is the best place to be. Yeah. I was just emotional, you know, and I shared with, you know, just a couple people very [00:39:00] briefly and people prayed over me.
And I listened to the conversation. And what I did on that day is I borrowed the faith of my sisters and I think we need to remember. That there are times when we are going to have to borrow the faith of our sisters in Christ
right. But then there’s also times that we give out faith and we share with others. And that’s part of the beauty of fellowship. But like we need other people, we need people to lift us up when we are struggling in our faith. And then I also think that Our faith is tested so that it might be proven genuine.
And , an analogy that God even uses in scripture itself, , when you refine gold, they melt it down and the impurities come to the top and they scrape them off and they want to get that gold as pure as possible.
When it is as pure as possible, it will beautifully radiate [00:40:00] the gold workers image in his reflection. And that’s when he knows that it is ready is when it beautifully reflects. And so we have to sometimes be put in the fire so we can skim off those things that are not making us pure and not making us radiate his beauty.
Yeah. God can take it when we have days when we’re like, I’m really struggling, but I’m going to go to you because I know that you are the source. Yeah.
Kelly: That’s the bravest thing we can do. The bravest thing we can do is cry out to God and know he hears us.
I was reading the Bible this morning and I found this. Beautiful verse. I’d like to share I just feel like it could help somebody who might be walking through a time when they are heartbroken. It’s Psalm 41 and 2. I waited patiently for the Lord to help me.[00:41:00]
Patiently, maybe not so patiently, but he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on solid ground and gave me a firm place to stand. And the NLT says He steadied me as I walked along, and it’s such a beautiful picture of our God who hears our cries, who knows even before we cry out to him what is happening in our hearts and draws near and strengthens us and steadies us, and I love that you shared how your sisters in Christ prayed over you and strengthened you and handed you faith and courage in that moment, and God comforted you.
Beth: Absolutely.
Kelly: So, Beth, in closing, why don’t you just, explain to us how this book might be helpful for those who aren’t in the military?
Beth: So the book is another move, God, 30 encouragements for embracing your life as a military wife.
And I [00:42:00] recognize that not all of your listeners are going to be from that people group. But maybe you have a niece, a nephew, grandchild, somebody in your neighborhood or on your kid’s sports team, who is military and maybe if this book won’t speak to you, it would to them. But part of what I also want to do is just give people a heart for the military and recognize the hard things they are going through.
Beth: I believe that the people of God can be pathways of the gospel and the military family’s lives by, just being the hands and feet to Jesus, to them. I was one of those people who was just really suffering and someone reached out to me. And just to encourage our listeners, ask God to give you eyes to see those military around you.
That military spouse where their military member is deployed right now, she or he is lonely, they are exhausted they are wondering is this worth it? And they just [00:43:00] need, it could be something as simple as buying a 5 coffee card and leaving it at their doorstep with a note, Hey, I’m thinking of you.
That doesn’t take a lot for us, but that would go a really long ways because I feel like military spouse is still very unseen and unappreciated. And one of the names of God in the account of Sarah and Abraham is with Hagar, the God who sees.
So I think that’s a way we can be a vessel of the Lord in their lives is to let them know that they are seen. Amen.
Kelly: That’s beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that. And your website,
Beth: it is bethrunkle. com. . And I also put out social media content every week, mainly on Instagram.
I take a topic a week relevant to military spouses. Some of it’s faith based and some of it’s just general stuff I wish I had known at the beginning. Yeah. I call it mill wife advice.
Kelly: Perfect. Thank you so much for joining me today, Beth.
Beth: Oh, Kelly. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
If you were encouraged in your faith today, it’d [00:44:00] be great if you’d help get the word out by subscribing, sharing with a friend or leaving a review. I’d love to hear from you. You can reach out through my website, kellyhall. org and pick up some free resources while you’re there. Thanks for listening to the Unshakable Hope Podcast.