This week the devotionals are going to travel through the Book of Ruth and will be looking at how God leads us in times of trouble and pain. We are not always struggling, but when we do, it is easy to lose sight of God and how we can move forward.
This chapter shows the change of Naomi who was happy and settled with her married sons into a widow without sons and alone in a foreign country. In such a desperate state she believes that God is against her and tries to push away the only people who want to stand by her.
‘Look,’ said Naomi, ‘your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.’
But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.’ When Naomi realised that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Ruth 1: 15-18 [NIV]
How did you cope the last time there was pain, disappointment or loneliness in your life? Did you distance yourself from support of friends and the love of God?
Or did you see what good things God was doing in the midst of the anguish? God placed Ruth in Naomi’s life to be a support who would not leave. God places people in our lives to support us and we need to recognise that God has sent them.
How have you seen God working in big or small ways when you have been struggling? Who has God placed in your life to care for you?
Lord, please help me to see the good things that you are doing in my life and be thankful for them.
Anna Naish
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