Burning The Bridge Behind
TEXT: RUTH 1:1-18
Key verse
“And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God” (Ruth 1:16).
A school of thought holds that decision determines destiny. In other words, it lies within any one’s ability to change whatever negative circumstances are brought across one’s path no matter its source or origin.
Severe famine had forced Elimelech into the heathen nation of Moab. While there, Elimelech and his two sons died. Naomi was left alone with her two daughters in-law. As the period of famine eased in her home country, Naomi decided to go back. When the two women volunteered to go with her, she tried hard to make them see the apparent futility of doing so. The tenor here is like, if I should say, I have hope, if I should have a husband also tonight and should bear sons, would you tarry for them until they were grown? One of them, Orpah, saw ‘reason’ and turned back to Moab “but Ruth clave unto her”.
Ruth renounced false religion and worship when she said to her mother in-law, “Thy people shall be my people and thy God my God”. And she thus made further entreaties by Naomi unnecessary. “So they two went until they came to Bethlehem”. Note that conversion to the true religion and the true God is a personal decision. It demands determination not to return to the rotten past. To face what lies ahead, there must be a total disconnect with the past life of sin.
Have you ever come to a crossroads where decision must be made on which way to go? To leave the known for the unknown? Do you take the line of least resistance and turn back like Orpah or remain steadfastly minded like Ruth? People who are scared about the unknown never get to reap God’s abundant blessings. Ruth walked against the treadmill, as it were, and became gloriously implanted into the Messiah’s lineage. You can also be divinely uplifted like Ruth, if you make God the major factor that influences your decision.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Steadfast commitment separates history makers from charlatans.
COVER to COVER: PSALMS 25; 29; 33; 36; !*