8-19-20 THOUGHTS

I’m looking at the first part of the book of Ruth.  We see LOVE and COMMITMENT, PROMISE.   We see TRAGEDY and PATHOS.  We see bad happening to good people.  We see empty women filled by God’s grace over time.  Well, you have to read the rest of the book to see that, but it’s worth your time.  There’s powerful LIFE and BEAUTY and EMOTION in these few verses.  Someone wrote a beautiful wedding song using verses 16-17.      

Ruth 1:16-21     But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back 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. 17  "Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me." 18  When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her. 19   So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. And when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, "Is this Naomi?" 20  She said to them, "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21  "I went out full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?"

Naomi sees her hard times as coming from the Lord.  There is no evidence of any wavering FAITH!   The DEVOTION from LOVE of a young woman to take care of an older woman is just awesome.  FAITH and TIME and GOD turn “down and out...  into up and coming,”  

Ps 30:5b   Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy [comes] in the morning.

Ruth is a story of YESTERDAY-TODAY & TOMORROW.  Sounds like my life?

Ps 16:11   You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
2Cor 4:17   For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
Heb 12:11   All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

My Prayer:
Thank you Lord God for life and hope in your presence. You created us, and you sustain us. May we learn to rest and trust in you in all things.  Help us to commit our lives wholly to you.  Help us each day to keep our promise to be your children.  Thank you that you, by grace and mercy and love, have allowed us to call you Father.             In the name of Jesus                 Amen