Book of Ruth
Have you ever felt like something was taken away from you? Maybe it was a person, or maybe an opportunity, or a dream, or your joy, your peace, or your hope.
If you’ve felt this way, Ruth can relate. Ruth lost her husband, & in her time, it meant she’d lost all income, security, & safety as well.
Her mother in law, Naomi, was a Jew & heard that the Lord had blessed Judah with good crops, so she decided to go there. She told Ruth to go back to her people so she might remarry, but Ruth wouldn’t go.
“Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you & turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, & your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, & there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more”(1:16-18)
It would have been very easy for Ruth to cling to comfort in the midst of loss. She could have gone back to her hometown, to the familiar, & taken the easier path.
But Ruth was determined.
Ruth recognized that even if she didn’t get to remarry, a life lived among God’s people would always be better.
Here’s what we can learn from Ruth: Do Not Let Loss Push You Into Isolation.
God has always been in the business of taking what the enemy meant for evil & turning it for good. Sometimes our heartbreak is to keep us from settling for less than what God has for us. Sometimes our greatest pain will become the testimony that allows someone else to experience freedom.
But it’s hard in the moment … So how do we stay focused on the right things?
Hebrews 10:23-25 Community with God’s people who will remind you that God can be trusted to keep his promise is how we stay focused
So, Ruth goes with Naomi to live among God’s people, & what does she find among God’s people? Restoration of what was lost
She meets Boaz, her kinsman redeemer, who becomes her husband. With Boaz, she is also gifted with children that would begin the lineage that Jesus would be born from!
God’s plan is not only to restore to you what was lost, but restore it better than before🤍
“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love & good works & let us not neglect our meeting together, as some do, but encourage one another”
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