Jay owned a Gideon’s Bible, yet his analytical mind didn’t permit him to accept its miracles. One thing haunted him though: the genuine faith of his friend. So Jay offered a strange prayer. He told God, “If you want me to believe in You, then do something I can’t explain.”

One day, something drew Jay to look for his Bible. It was gone. How could that be? He never lost track of things.

He drove in the rain to his teaching job at the University of Zurich. Stepping out of his car, he spotted a Gideon’s Bible on the wet pavement. That’s strange, he thought. Picking it up, he noticed the Bible was totally dry despite the rain. Something he couldn’t explain!

Gideon Bibles are named for an Old Testament hero of Israel. When God chose Gideon to lead Israel into battle against a vast army, Gideon had huge doubts. He told God, “I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece . . . , then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand” (Judges 6:37). God answered Gideon’s challenge not once but twice (vv. 39–40).

Doubt-filled prayers aren’t a pattern for us to follow. They can, however, reveal God’s character. Gideon led a tiny army to a smashing victory (Judges 7). Jay put his faith in Jesus, recognizing that his prayer had been answered by a loving God who does things we can’t explain.

Pieter kisses a framed picture of his elderly parents every night. It’s been many years since he was last with them. As a young adult, when he became a follower of Jesus, his family and community pressured him to give up his newfound belief. When he didn’t, his parents disowned him. “In the Bible, God promised He’d help His children in difficult times, and I believed Him,” Pieter said. “Choosing to follow Him brought suffering, but He has helped me endure.”

Pieter has the assurance from God that He keeps His word, so Pieter is able to trustingly act on God’s promises. We read in Genesis that Joseph, at the end of his life, was also confident in the promises of God. He told his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Genesis 50:24). Joseph was sure that God would keep His promise to take His people to Canaan. So he instructed the Israelites, “You must carry my bones up from [Egypt]” (v. 25).

Four hundred years later, during the exodus from Egypt, “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him” (Exodus 13:19). Eventually, “Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem [in Canaan]” (Joshua 24:32).

Let’s follow Joseph’s example of faith (Hebrews 11:22), showing our faith in God’s promises by acting on them.