But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” Ruth 1:16
Ruth tells Naomi, her widowed mother-in-law, “I don’t want to leave you, I want to go with you everywhere.” Ruth was committed to their relationship. She was so faithful and devoted; her self-giving love was a gift and a blessing in their difficult circumstances. Ruth was willing to go anywhere with Naomi. It is believed this story was written during a dark time in Israel’s history calling them back to faithful obedience in response to God’s divine grace. This call can apply to us today.
We too live in difficult times. There are many distractions to being fully devoted to God. Yet Like Israel, or like Ruth and Naomi, we belong to a loving, faithful, and powerful God who has never failed to care and provide for His children. He desires us to go anywhere and be with him always. We must be watchful and wakeful, diligently attending to our heart’s condition. It’s imperative to shed all the unnecessary baggage in our lives, responsibilities we aren’t meant to have, attempts to control what is not controllable, and prioritize our lives to move at the Lord’s bidding. Above all, we need to seek God’s ways, his Kingdom, with his eyes and heart.
Are you ready to follow God wherever he leads? Readiness is having your life in a condition God can use immediately. Readiness is an attitude willing and eager to obey God’s directions, in response to his amazing love. Are you ready to be his hands and feet to those around you? Listen to the song I Will Follow by Christ Tomlin and let it encourage you.
By Donna Burns
