She focuses on Grace despite obstacles in life; she is that modern-day Ruth, she is me & she is you
Updated: Apr 14, 2019
Sometimes life takes an unexpected turn in directions you never anticipate to go. During those moments when your world flips upside down, are you able to take a step back and trust God with what‘s going on? Can you be okay with not knowing how it will turn out? "God will never give you more than you can handle," people say. Correction. The times in life where you feel like you are dealing with more than what we can handle is because you are. And in those instances, we learn the importance of why we are to give our burdens to the One who can handle it, God.
Scriptures speak about a young woman whose life was flipped upside down by an unexpected situation. She was at a crossroad in her life where she didn’t know how the outcome would play out but little did she know the hope she had within would have the most significant impact on the choices ahead of her, ultimately changing her life forever.
Her name was Ruth the Moabitess.
At a young age, Ruth is left widowed with no children; she chooses to let go of Moab her home to follow her mother-in-law, Naomi, back to Bethlehem. Leaving with Naomi meant facing difficult hardships, leaving with Naomi meant putting away familiarities from what she knew, opening her mind to new perspectives in walking into the unknown, full of hope.
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.”
Ruth 1:16 NIV
Knowing she wasn’t a child of Israel, she humbled herself and followed Naomi. Ruth was in desperate need for mercy and favor from God. She just lost everything, and she knew she had to trust the process of seeing God provide.
Ruth’s faith aligned her destiny with divine appointments. By such determination of wanting God to be her God, Ruth is led to go out and pick up scraps off the ground left behind from harvesters to survive for her self and her mother-in-law. And of all the fields to choose from, Ruth happens to glean the field kin to Naomi, Boaz. Coincidence? I think not! The hope she had in seeking favor was intentional. And by faith, she was strengthened with full determination and dedication to her actions. The expectation of seeing God provide somehow someway humbled her heart, and that produced the manifestation of God’s grace.
Jesus was approached by a woman with such faith as Ruth. She humbled herself before God by this profound statement that made Jesus Himself stop and move on the woman’s behalf.
And she said, “Yes Lord, Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
Matthew 15:27 NIV
Jesus was taken back by this woman’s determination, she was desperate, and she needed grace from God. She needed Jesus to make a way. She being lowly in stature (a Gentile woman), compares herself to a dog being satisfied with whatever her Master gives. This analogy is the state of humility. Scriptures declare we can approach God's throne of grace with the confidence of receiving mercy and finding grace to help us in our time of need and that should humble anyone who knows this fact. We too should have that understanding that God‘s grace given to us isn’t deserved, and God’s mercy doesn’t give us what we do deserve. A little bread of life from Christ is what that woman sought. And with a true humbled heart, her faith moved Jesus to act.
Apostle Peter‘s Prayer wraps it all up in this one perspective:
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
I Peter 5:6-7 NKJV
Knowing that we all experience difficulties in life; these are those moments where we see God turn outcomes into something more significant than what could ever be done by humbling ourselves. You see, when coals are placed under the right pressure it produces diamonds, and when our faith is put to the test in trusting God, it's more worthy and valuable than gold being put into the fire. Therefore, one won't ever know their true inner strength of faith until refined.
I want to encourage you today; during difficult times God will always work everything out for our good even when it doesn’t make any sense. You are that modern-day Ruth when challenges come your way because you have the determination to see it through, putting in the work, and doing it with full diligence without expectation of recognition from man but doing everything whole-heartedly with a humble spirit for God.
