Ruth 1:16-17 The start of the journey
“And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.”
Ruth 4: 13-15 The culmination
“So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son. And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.”
We will look at two applications here.
1. The spiritual
When we come to the Lord, what he is looking for in us is the first passage. He hopes to see in us a desire to ardently stick to him, like Ruth did to Naomi, through all the trials and tribulations of life, even the dark patches where no immediate future can be seen, and even through the valley’s of the shadows of death (and we’ve all had them). God is no person’s debtor, and anybody who follows him in this manner will be rewarded.
2. While we are in this life
In the second passage, we see Ruth’s reward, as her true blessing to Naomi is revealed. In the natural, we have opportunities to help many people. In fact, we may be the only real help some people receive. I’m sure, the last thing we would want is to be found guilty of is falling short of delivering the same love to those as the Father has for us. When Jesus called us to walk the extra mile, he knew he would need to walk those miles many times with us. He knew we would need him to keep our spirits up when things have turned bad, to give us hope to get through those hard and sometimes very bitter trials, and to provide direction, peace and a vision so we can keep walking on in this life.
Let’s think on this story of Ruth the next time the Lord brings someone our way.
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