Sunday 13 Aug 2017

August 13: Ruth 1:11-18

Key Verse: Ruth 1:16
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.

Devotion:
Sometimes we listen to the preacher in church and then we go about our normal lives. Sometimes what they say seems important and we think about it for a while… then we go about our normal lives. Sometimes we go to a festival where we hear something profound and we say we will do it and follow… and then we get home and follow our own ways. But how many times have we actually made a difference to our lives based on what we hear, and then followed that new way for the rest of our lives?

Unfortunately we do get tied up in the world and we tend to fall back to our old ways. We know we are doing wrong now, because we have the head knowledge, but we continue to do it our old ways because it is just so much easier to do so. This is the trap the evil one has set up for us and it works so well we don’t even know it is him behind the scenes! Take a look at these first verse in the book of Ruth with me.

Ruth and Orpah were daughters-in-law to Naomi and all three of them had lost their husbands. They had no more income and little they could do in their communities. Naomi had made a difference to their lives because of the Godly upbringing in her and their lives. Orpah was ready to go back to her old ways and find another husband, but Ruth was going to step forward and change her life from that point on. Even after a bit of persuading she still stuck to her wishes and followed Naomi back to see what her God was all about.

Are we showing the people around us that our God is awesome, so awesome they should change their lives to follow Him? Are we making some difference others are looking up to? Naomi was, even though she was now distraught and just wanted to go back to her old town, God’s light was still shining somewhere. Ruth saw this and wanted that light in her own life even though she too had lost everything and could quite easily go back to her own ways, she wanted the light, God’s light!

Points to Ponder:
Are you ready to make a difference in someone’s life?

Will you follow through and allow that difference to grow into a change of life?