Heart to Heart: Faithfulness into the Unknown
Ruth is a book of only 4 chapters
but yet a book that holds such wisdom and depth. In our youth group girls’ Bible
study we had decided that we wanted to read Ruth after we completed Esther. It
was the night before Bible study and I still hadn’t read Ruth yet. I knew that
I needed to so I could be semi-prepared for discussion the next day. I started
reading Ruth that night and found everything so interesting. Ever since I was a
little nursery kid I had always heard the story of Ruth but back then it was
just a story from Sunday school. While I was reading that night I realized how
selfless of a person Ruth really was. She left everything she knew, her home,
her religion, and her family to follow her deceased husband’s mother to her
home land. Naomi was literally sobbing and pushing Ruth away telling her not to
follow her but Ruth would not budge. Ruth 1:16- But Ruth said, “Do not urge me
to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go and
where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my
God.” You don’t find that kind of loyalty very often. Ruth had no idea where
she was going or what she was getting herself into, but she knew that she was
going to follow Naomi with all her heart. I then started to think about my own
life, do I show loyalty like that to the people that are close to me? Do I show
it to God and let Him be in charge of my life? I realized that the answers to
these questions were no. I am not allowing God direct me on a path without
questioning him or without thinking of all the other possible routes I could
take before agreeing to God’s path. I started to realize that I need to show
faithfulness like Ruth, to not question anything but have child-like faith and know
that whatever God is telling me is the best thing for me. With big decisions coming up around the corner
I am slowly working on letting go of control. I am working on letting God shine
the light on His path, whether it be through my mom reminding me of all the options
out there or my dad encouraging me to think of the future after college. I have
to be honest and say that it’s not the easiest thing, but I know that God is
working on my heart and reminding me that He is always right. So today I
encourage you to remember the story of Ruth and maybe start thinking- am I on
my own path or God’s path?
With love,
Caroline.
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The story of Ruth is almost mind-boggling, we are not used to living with such wild trusting loyalty. It is truly beautiful and really makes me think what a remarkable woman she must have been.
ReplyDeleteYes, when you really start to pull the story apart and think to yourself "would I do this" I noticed that most of the time I came to a point where I was leaning towards no. She was an amazing woman!
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