My God My Everything

Like Naomi, Ruth was well acquainted with grief and loss. She too had lost her father-in-law, her husband, her brother-in-law and had no children after ten years of marriage. Her pain was just as real and raw as Naomi’s. In her loss she fully understood Naomi’s situation, her discouragement, her bitterness, her hopelessness and yet she didn’t compare her situation to others or blame God, rather she used it to help someone else. When given the opportunity to return to her family she didn’t hesitate to make her choice known to Naomi that she would go with her and would make a new life in a new land and would…

Have you ever felt like you have nothing or that you have lost everything? That’s exactly how Naomi felt. Her husband had died leaving her with two sons. In time they married foreign girls from the land they were living in and after about ten years both of her sons died. There were no grandchildren to carry on the family name and Naomi was away from her homeland with big decisions to be made. She decided to return to her native land and informed her daughter-in-laws. Naomi encouraged both of them to return to their families and start a new life saying, “it’s more bitter for me than for you,…

Last weekend we were at our weekend home by the river and I was struggling with emotions over some personal issues and praying that I would handle them correctly. A breeze started and I got up to close the umbrella on the patio table. Right then I saw a dear friend of mine walking towards our camper. What a beautiful site! It made me want to cry. She sat by the river and we talked about other things, but just her presence reminded me that I have a friend who understands because she had been in the same situation years before. Her friendly visit quieted my heart and brought a…

In the story of Ruth, Naomi had made a decision to return to her home in Bethlehem. She informed her two daughter-in-laws of her decision and suggested that they also return to their parents home and begin new lives. One daughter-in-law named Orpah did just that and with tears in her eyes returned to the life she had known before. Ruth made the decision to go with Naomi and begin a new life regardless of the unknown. We are also faced with a decision to remain in our lives that we’ve come to know and be comfortable with or to choose Christ and venture out into a new life with…

The story of Ruth is not only about friendship but about redemption. It was in her relationship with Naomi that the Lord led her to be where He had planned and for a purpose much greater than she could ever imagine. As a foreigner, Ruth knew what it felt like to be an outsider, to not fit in, to be different and to know rejection. But that all changed when she made the choice to go with Naomi and made her commitment to God. “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…

Everything about the Christian life concerns relationships. First with God and then with each other. When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus modeled the perfect relationship with God while He was here on earth. He taught us that God operates in relational ways and invites us to have the ultimate relationship with Him. The bible is full of stories of relationships between God and people and between people and each other. We…

For the month of June I’ll be studying the story of Ruth and Naomi. It’s a beautiful message on true friendship and I’m excited about how God will use this to open the door to many new relationships. To go along with the daily blog study, I’m inviting you to take a friendship challenge with me. Throughout the month of June I’m going to send a letter, a notecard, a text or email to a different woman each day letting her know that I’m thinking of her. Women that I know from church, my neighbors, acquaintances and anyone that God leads me to. I may mention something I admire about…

For the month of June we will discover some of the many lessons that can be learned from studying the lives of Ruth and Naomi. Overview – Friendship The story of Ruth and Naomi provides a model of what a Godly friendship should look like.  Their cultures, family backgrounds, and ages were very different and as mother-in-law and daughter-in-law they probably had as many opportunities for tension as for tenderness.  Yet they were bound to each other. They shared deep sorrow as well as great affection for each other.  Naomi allowed Ruth to see, hear and feel all the joy and anguish of her relationship with God, which eventually led…

In a devotional I read last week I was reminded how important it is to regularly ask God to search my heart and reveal anything that is hindering my walk with Him. When we ask with a sincere desire to know, God will answer. I prayed that prayer and that very day the revelations began. Several different circumstances provided the stage that would reveal what my heart really thought and felt. And it wasn’t pretty. Plans of others overlapped what I wanted. Work demands increased. Comments in conversations pushed my value aside. In exhaustion my thoughts became projections of what I thought might take place. All of these were ways…