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It has well been said that faith is not believing in spite of evidence but obeying in spite of consequence.
efforts we make to escape from our destiny only serve to lead us into it.”
Today we experience national and international perplexities, moral decay, and difficulties of every kind, and yet God loves this lost world and is seeking for a bride. In spite of alarms in the headlines and dangers on the streets, we can be sure that God still loves the world and wants to save lost sinners. When you know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, no matter how tough the times may be, you are part of a beautiful love story.
When trouble comes to our lives, we can do one of three things: endure it, escape it, or enlist it. If we only endure our trials, then trials become our master, and we have a tendency to become hard and bitter. If we try to escape our trials, then we will probably miss the purposes God wants to achieve in our lives. But if we learn to enlist our trials, they will become our servants instead of our masters and work for us; and God will work all things together for our good and His glory (Rom. 8:28).
No matter how difficult our circumstances may be, the safest and best place is in the will of God. It’s easy to say with David, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest” (Ps. 55:6). But it’s wiser to claim the promise of Isaiah 40:31 and wait on the Lord for “wings like eagles” and by faith soar above the storms of life. You can’t run away from your problems.
How do you walk by faith? By claiming the promises of God and obeying the Word of God, in spite of what you see, how you feel, or what may happen. It means committing yourself to the Lord and relying wholly on Him to meet the need. When we live by faith, it glorifies God, witnesses to a lost world, and builds Christian character into our lives. God has ordained that “the righteous will live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38; 2 Cor. 5:7); and when we refuse to trust Him, we are calling God a liar and dishonoring Him.
Elimelech and his family had fled Judah to escape death, but the three men met death just the same. The family had planned only to “sojourn” temporarily in Moab, but they remained for ten years (Ruth 1:4). At the end of that decade of disobedience, all that remained were three lonely widows and three Jewish graves in a heathen land. Everything else was gone (v. 21). Such is the sad consequence of unbelief.
We can’t run away from our problems. We can’t avoid taking with us the basic cause of most of our problems, which is an unbelieving and disobedient heart. “The majority of us begin with the bigger problems outside and forget the one inside,” wrote Oswald Chambers. “A man has to learn ‘the plague of his own heart’ before his own problems can be solved” (The Shadow of an Agony, 76).
Whenever we have disobeyed the Lord and departed from His will, we must confess our sin and return to the place of blessing. Abraham had to leave Egypt and go back to the altar he had abandoned (Gen. 13:1–4), and Jacob had to go back to Bethel (35:1).
God delights in showing mercy (Mic. 7:18), and often He shows His mercy to the least likely people in the least likely places. This is the sovereign grace of the God “who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4 KJV).
Law excludes us from God’s family, but grace includes us if we put our faith in Christ.
When you read the genealogy of Jesus Christ in Matthew 1, you find the names of five women, four of whom have very questionable credentials: Tamar committed incest with her father-in-law (Gen. 38); Rahab was a Gentile harlot (Josh. 2:1); Ruth was an outcast Gentile Moabitess (Ruth 1:4–5); and “the wife of Uriah” was an adulteress (2 Sam. 11:2–4). How did they ever become a part of the family of the Messiah? Through the sovereign grace and mercy of God! God is “longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV). (Mary is the
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We can’t control the circumstances of life, but we can control how we respond to them. That’s what faith is all about, daring to believe that God is working everything for our good even when we don’t feel like it or see it happening. “In everything give thanks” (1 Thess. 5:18) isn’t always easy to obey, but obeying this command is the best antidote against a bitter and critical spirit. The Scottish preacher George H. Morrison said, “Nine-tenths of our unhappiness is selfishness, and is an insult cast in the face of God.” Because Naomi was imprisoned by selfishness, she was bitter against God.
“I firmly believe in Divine Providence,” said President Woodrow Wilson. “Without it, I think I should go crazy.
Are you trusting God for your new beginning? After all, with God at your side, your resources are far greater than your burdens. Stop staring at the wall and, by faith, get up and open the door to a brand-new tomorrow.
“Providence assists not the idle.”
God’s providential working in our lives is both a delight and a mystery. God is constantly working with us (Mark 16:20), in us (Phil. 2:12–13), and for us (Rom. 8:28) and accomplishing His gracious purposes. We pray, we seek His will, and we make decisions (and sometimes make mistakes); but it is God who orders events and guides His willing children. In a spectacular vision, the prophet Ezekiel saw the providential workings of God depicted by a throne set on a “firmament” that was moved here and there by “wheels within wheels” (Ezek. 1). You can’t explain it, but thank God you can believe it
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How good it is to know that God has good people living in bad times!
When we commit our lives to the Lord, what happens to us happens by way of appointment and not by accident.
Bible students have seen in Boaz a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ in His relationship to His bride, the church. Like Ruth, the lost sinner is outside the covenant family of God, bankrupt, with no claim on God’s mercy. But God took the initiative and provided a way for us to enter His family through faith in Jesus Christ. (See Eph. 2:10–22.)
Grace means that God makes the first move to come to our aid, not because we deserve anything, but because He loves us and wants us for Himself. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NKJV). God took the initiative in salvation when we were spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1–10), without strength (Rom. 5:6), sinners (5:8), and His enemies (5:10). Salvation was not an afterthought of God but that which He planned from eternity.
Queen Elizabeth has never spoken to me and probably never will, but almighty God has spoken to me in Jesus Christ and through His Word! “God … has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Heb. 1:1–2 NKJV). In spite of all that a world of sinners has done to the Lord, He still speaks to us in His grace. He not only speaks the word of salvation, but He also gives us the guidance we need for everyday life.
Jesus Christ came to this earth as a servant (Phil. 2:1–11) that He might save us and make us a part of His family. He has shared with us the riches of His mercy and love (Eph. 2:4), the riches of His grace (v. 7), the riches of His wisdom and knowledge (Rom. 11:33), His riches in glory (Phil. 4:19), and, yes, His “unsearchable riches” (Eph. 3:8 NIV). We, undeserving “foreigners,” are members of the family of God and have all of His inheritance at our disposal.
I find that many people are miserable because they don’t obey the admonition of Hebrews 12:2: “fixing our eyes on Jesus.” They spend so much time looking at themselves, their circumstances, and other people that they fail to do what Ruth did, namely, center their attention on their Master. Instead of resting in His perfections, they focus on their own imperfections. Instead of seeing His spiritual riches, they complain about their bankruptcy. They go to church “to get their needs met,” instead of going to church to worship the God who is greater than any need. They need to heed the counsel of
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The Word of God comes from the heart of God (Ps. 33:11) to the hearts of His people (Matt. 13:18–23) and gives encouragement and hope (Rom. 15:4). If you listen to the voices of the world, you will be discouraged, but if you listen to the voice of God from His Word, your heart will be encouraged.
The Word of God and the Son of God can fully satisfy the heart of the believer. When we seek for satisfaction anywhere else, we will find ourselves disobedient and dissatisfied. The lost world labors for that which doesn’t satisfy (Isa. 55:2), but the believer has full satisfaction because of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (Ps. 36:7–9; 63:5; 65:4; 103:5; 107:9). As the hymn writer put it: Well of water ever springing, Bread of life so rich and free, Untold wealth that never faileth, My Redeemer is to me. Hallelujah! I have found Him Whom my soul so long has craved! Jesus satisfies my
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We must live by faith, and we must depend ...
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Should not we who believe in Jesus Christ rejoice in hope? When you consider who He is, what He has done for us, and what He says to us in His Word, there is no reason for us to feel hopeless. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He has died for us, and now He intercedes for us in heaven. In His Word, He has given us “exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4 KJV) that can never fail. No matter how you may feel today, no matter how difficult your circumstances may be, you can rejoice in hope if you will focus your faith on Jesus Christ.
For the Christian believer, hope is not a shallow “hope-so feeling” generated by optimistic fantasies. Hope is an inner sense of joyful assurance and confidence as we trust God’s promises and face the future with His help. This hope is God’s gift to His children through the Holy Spirit, who reminds us of God’s promises found in His Word (Rom. 15:13).
God used Ruth to turn Naomi’s bitterness into gratitude, her unbelief into faith, and her despair into hope. One person trusting the Lord and obeying His will can change a situation from defeat to victory.
(Grace is love that pays the price to help the undeserving one.)
It’s when we serve others that we ourselves receive the greatest joy and satisfaction.
Keep in mind that the book of Ruth is much more than the record of the marriage of a rejected alien to a respected Jew. It’s also the picture of Christ’s relationship to those who trust Him and belong to Him. In the steps that Ruth takes, recorded in this chapter, we see the steps God’s people must take if they want to enter into a deeper relationship with the Lord. Like Ruth, we must not be satisfied merely with living on leftovers (2:2), or even receiving gifts (2:14, 16). We must want Him alone, for when we have Him, we also have all that He owns. It’s not the gifts that we seek, but the
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The more we are like Jesus Christ in character and conduct, the more we please our Father; and the more we please Him, the more He can bless and use us for His glory.
The will of God is not a cafeteria where we can pick and choose what we want. God expects us to accept all that He plans for us and to obey Him completely. Coming to God with a hidden agenda and with reservations in our hearts will only lead to grieving the Spirit and missing God’s best.
“Life is full of rude awakenings!” a famous cartoon canine likes to say, and more than one biblical character would agree. Adam went to sleep and woke up to discover he’d been through surgery and was now a married man. Jacob woke up to discover he was married to the wrong woman! Boaz woke up at midnight to find a woman lying at his feet.
Our assurance is not in our feelings or our circumstances but in His Word.
“Fear not” is the word of assurance that the Lord gave to many of His servants: to Abraham (Gen. 15:1), Isaac (26:24), Jacob (46:3), Moses and the nation of Israel (Ex. 14:13), Joshua (Josh. 8:1; 10:8), King Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 20:17), the Jewish remnant returning to their land (Isa. 41:10, 13–14; 43:1, 5; 44:2), the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 3:9), the prophet Daniel (Dan. 10:12, 19), Joseph (Matt. 1:20), Zacharias (Luke 1:13), Mary (1:30), the shepherds (2:10), Paul (Acts 27:24), and the apostle John (Rev. 1:17). You and I can say with these spiritual giants, “The LORD is my helper; I will not
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Whatever God starts, He finishes; and what He does, He does well (Phil. 1:6; Mark 7:37).
A man who sends a generous gift to his prospective mother-in-law is certainly a good choice for a husband!
he book of Ruth opens with three funerals but closes with a wedding. There is a good deal of weeping recorded in the first chapter, but the last chapter records an overflowing of joy in the little town of Bethlehem. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Ps. 30:5 KJV). Not all of life’s stories have this kind of happy ending, but this little book reminds us that, for the Christian, God still writes the last chapter. We don’t have to be afraid of the future.
The tragedy is that the Jewish rulers didn’t always obey this law, and the prophets had to rebuke them for stealing land from the helpless (1 Kings 21; Isa. 5:8–10; Hab. 2:9–12). The nation’s abuse of the land was one cause of their captivity (2 Chron. 36:21).
When it comes to spiritual redemption, all people are in bondage to sin and Satan (Eph. 2:1–3; John 8:33–34) and are unable to set themselves free. Jesus Christ gave His life as a ransom for sinners (Mark 10:45; Rev. 5:9–10), and faith in Him sets the captive free.
When you see this as a type of Jesus Christ, it reminds you that He had to become related to us before He could redeem us. He became flesh and blood so He could die for us on the cross (Heb. 2:14–15). When He was born into this world in human flesh, He became our “near kinsman,” and He will remain our “kinsman” for all eternity. What matchless love!
When it comes to the redemption of sinners, nobody but Jesus Christ is rich enough to pay the price. Indeed, the payment of money can never set sinners free; it is the shedding of the precious blood of Christ that has accomplished redemption (1 Peter 1:18–19; see Ps. 49:5–9). We have redemption through Christ’s blood (Eph. 1:7), because He gave Himself for us (Titus 2:14) and purchased eternal redemption for us (Heb. 9:12).
From our point of view, salvation is free to “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord” (Acts 2:21 KJV), but from God’s point of view, redemption is a very costly thing.
It’s worth noting that the nearer kinsman tried to protect his name and inheritance, but we don’t even know what his name was or what happened to his family! Boaz took the risk of love and obedience, and his name is written down in Scripture and held in honor. “He who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17 NKJV).
Like Boaz, Jesus wasn’t concerned about jeopardizing His own inheritance; instead, He made us a part of His inheritance (Eph. 1:11, 18). Like Boaz, Jesus made His plans privately, but He paid the price publicly; and like Boaz, Jesus did what He did because of His love for His bride.
Whether he had in his hand a sling or sword, a harp or hymnal, David was a great servant of God who brought untold blessings to Israel.
Never underestimate the power of the grace of God.
