How do I keep my faith when I don't have support? And this is real because support matters. We want to feel supported. And the things that that we're doing, because it makes us feel like we're not crazy. It makes us feel like we're seen it makes us feel like we're not in this by ourselves. And I wanted to address this one because sometimes you may be in a season where your support is not coming in the way that you're used to it coming.
So your support may not be your family and friends because they may not get this life that you're trying to live. They may not get what it means or why it's important to truly live life as led by God. They may not get entrepreneurship that like, what, why don't you just get a good government job? That's huge here in the DC area. A lot of people, most people here work for the government and they move up that pay grade within the government. That's pretty standard. So if you're somebody who wants to be an entrepreneur, start something, especially something that people don't understand, you can feel like you're not supported.
You may, all your friends may have gone to college and got it and call you to go to college. Or he pulled you out of college. Like there, I believe that there are always going to be seasons where you're in a different space from those that you have traditionally grown up with or maneuver through life with. I know that hit me after I graduated undergrad. Because up until that point, I have friends from all through school. I went to school in Baltimore, which is about an hour and a half from where I grew up in PG County, Maryland.
And, but I went to school with people that I knew. I met new friends. And so everybody that I had gone through life with and who had been my support system, where we were pretty much in the same life phase. But once I left school and I started my own business, and especially when I left my job, things got a little bit different and it got difficult. And I feel like I didn't have the support because I couldn't go out and go to brunch every week like we were doing. After all, I didn't have the money for that. I was trying to pay for my business coach.
I didn't have the discretionary income to go to brunch every single weekend, or my friends may go to the club. I don't want to go to the club. And especially when I started getting, going back to church and growing my faith, and building my relationship with God, I didn't want to do those things anymore. So now not only did my friends not understand the sacrificial season that I was in financially to build my business. They didn't understand now that I didn't want to do a lot of the things that I used to do anymore.
And it was difficult because living that life for God and being an entrepreneur was hard by itself. And so here I was in a season where nobody, no one seemed to understand it. And that's part of the reason why I started podcasting initially is that I wanted to find my tribe, my people, I wanted to try to find and build a community of like-minded people that I couldn't find. And so I wanted to bring this particular question to the show because I completely understand and identify with what you're going through.
So I want to point you to some people in the Bible that I want you to study because I want to find community and I want you to find support.
And I want you to find wisdom straight from the word. A misconception that I believe a lot of us get or feel when we're in this season, we feel like we don't have support is that we're the only ones that have gone through this.
And it's a lie that the enemy plants in our head to try to make our situation or our circumstances seem impossible when they're not. And this is why I want to answer this by pointing you to a few places in scripture because the Bible is our blueprint. There is nothing that we go through today that has not already been worked out previously. Now the circumstances of the times might be different. The culture of those times might be different, but the core is the same.
And so I'm going to tell you where to go and scripture, because I want us to get used to going back to the Bible. Now I can't stress the importance enough for you guys to have a study Bible, because you literally can go to the back of your study, Bible search, whatever emotion you're feeling, and find so many places in the word that covers that very topic. But for right now, I'm going to give you three. The first place I want you to go in the Bible is our, or the first person that I want you to visit is Gideon.
Gideon's can be found in Judges six through eight. Now, the reason why I say to study Gideon is that he was in a place where he was living in the consequences, consequences of the people of Israel, his decision. So they were living in calamity because of the people's rebellion and them not obeying and following God. And so getting them was in a place where it was desolate. He felt alone. I mean, when the angel of God visited him in this text, he was like, hiding.
I forgot what he was doing, but he was hiding what he was doing because it was that just dangerous where he was. And so if you go to judges six, 15 through 16, this is where the angel of the Lord visited Gideon. And he told him basically that he was about to go to war and that he was going to defeat the Midianites. And so in 15, Gideon says, pardon me, my Lord, but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest and I'm the least in my family.
The Lord answered. I will be with you and you will strike down all the many Midianites, leaving, none alive, getting in was in a place here where he felt alone. He didn't have support here. He was in the midst of just a desolate season and feeling like God was nowhere near where he was at. And he is supposed to have faith. He's getting told this big assignment that he is about to go defeat the same people that are keeping them oppressed right now.
He's like, how am I supposed to do that? My tribe is the weakest and I'm the least in my family, but you want to call me to go and defeat the Midianites one, the math and math, and die what's up. But he had faith. The next person's story, I want you to read his Rahab. So Rahab's story is found in Joshua. She is one of only two women who is mentioned in Hebrews 11 when the great examples of faith are given Hebrews 11 and 31 says it was by faith. That Rahab, the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God for she had given a friendly welcome.
So Rahab was a prostitute. Rahab was also a Canaanite. And so when Joshua sent his spies to spy out, this was after the people of Israel wandered through the wilderness. Now they were finally able to, or finally getting ready to enter into the promised land. And so Joshua who had taken over for Moses now sent two more spots to go and check out the land. Now Rahab was alone because she decided to have faith in the God of these, of the Israelites.
She decided to have faith in the God of these spies who were coming over to scout out the land. She didn't even know God, but because her people were so fearful of them, she was like, hold on. There must be something up with this God that they serve. And so she decided to then aid them in their mission to scout out the land. So she was alone because she was in essence helping the enemy of her people. So she was going to guess what she was supposed to do. The Canaanite Kings who came to her and was like, yo, I heard that them spies from the Israelites came over here and they came to visit you.
Are they still here? And she was like, no, they left. I don't know where they went. She was actually hiding them, but she lied to the king because she got on board with the spies mission. And she went up to them and she said, listen because I saved you, just promise that I and my family are safe when you take over the land. And I give you this example because Rahab was most definitely alone, but she chose to serve. It had faith that God was wanting to save it. She put her life on a lot.
She put her life, the line for God in faith that he was going to protect her as a result. And he did. And so again, go and read the stories in Joshua. The story of Rahab. And lastly, I want you to read the story of Elizabeth. Her story can be found in Luke. Elizabeth was also alone and had to keep her faith because she was believing in God for a child. The Bible even says that Elizabeth and her husband Zachariah, God called them faithful and righteous.
And so they were living for God, serving in the temple. All of these things had all of this faith and they knew they had not seen that their faith in regards to her carrying a child materialize yet so much. So, I mean, at this point they were old and so much. So when Zachariah was serving an angel, Gabriel came to visit Zachariah and said that Elizabeth was going to get pregnant and give birth to a son. And he was the name of John. And this is referring to John, the Baptist Zachariah didn't even believe him.
Zachariah then goes and writes Elizabeth a note because he couldn't talk to tell her that she was going to give birth to a son and telling her what the angel said. She instantly rejoiced and praise God and thanked him for answering her prayers. So of course she ends up giving birth to John the Baptist, which led way for Jesus.
And so this is another story of somebody being alone. Back in these times, you were looked at crazy. If you were a woman and you didn't have children, it was not socially acceptable to be old and barren. And that's what she was. So I'm sure that she felt alone as well. Looking at all of these other women who have these full families and here she is being faithful in serving God. And he even counting her righteous. And she still hasn't seen the manifestation of natural of what she's believing in God for.
I'm sure she felt alone, but she kept the faith anyway, and God came through. And so I want you to read and visit these stories because I want you to find comfort that even in the midst of you feeling alone, you keep the faith. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. And so you keep the faith. When you feel alone by hearing and hearing the word of God, you have to keep your faith no matter how you feel, because the Bible says that without faith, it's impossible to please God.
So I want you to remain in the space to where you are in right standing with the Lord in the way that you do that. Or one of the ways that you do that is by making sure that you are a person of faith. And again, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God, which is why I'm sending you back to the scripture. So again, read, read up on, get in Rahab, and Elizabeth, thank you guys so much for listening to this bonus episode. I will talk to you later this week.