11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the Lord REPAY you for what you have done. May you be RICHLY REWARDED by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take REFUGE.” Ruth 2
12 BLESSED ARE ALL who take REFUGE in him. Psalm 2
Ruth laid down ALL HER RIGHTS and made a huge sacrifice. She left her family, her land and her people to go with her mother-in-law Naomi back to Bethlehem (House of Bread).
15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” Ruth 1
Ruth had the opportunity to turn back like her sister-in-law, in a sense her decision was tested right at the outset. God doesn’t force anyone to come to Him, or continue to walk with Him, rather He gives us free choice. We’ve entered another New Year and we’re all going to be faced with many decisions. For some of us, like Ruth, they may determine the course of the Rest of our lives.
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. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. Ruth 1
Ruth made her decision to live with Naomi’s people and to adopt Naomi’s God as her God. She made a lifelong commitment.
God honoured Ruth because she’d given up so much to serve her elderly mother-in-law and come to live with God’s people.
Ruth REAPED a harvest based on her decision to physically and spiritually RELOCATE. Is God asking some of us to say NO TO SELF in 2023 and fully embrace His Plan for our futures? We have to go one way or the other, it can’t be both. Ruth stepped into the unknown and was blessed beyond anything she’d known before. Don’t be surprised if you face some major decisions this year, but look for God’s purposes for your life when you decide! They may seem foolish on the surface, but when God’s in it, the sacrifice is always worth it.
May God guide us and lead us in all our ways in this New Year.