I love the story of Ruth in the Bible. The simple reason why I like her story is because she was a normal woman, just like one of us. She wasn’t famous or she didn’t have a great position. She was unseen, yet God showed her to the whole world through the Bible. Ruth was like a shining star in the time that she lived in and God really saw her. Why was she so special?
Redemptive love
Ruth’s lovestory is breathtaking. She finds her redemptive love in the most critical moment of her life. She was coming from and living in Moab, which was rejected by the Israelites. When she loses her husband, she goes together with her mother-in-law, Naomi, to live in Israel, where her husband’s family came from. What a drama! Later on in the story, as they move to Israel, her prince charming Boaz appears and offers her a pure and redemptive love. Beautiful! (I invite you to read the
book of Ruth, if you haven’t yet).
Loyal and faithful
Now, imagine going to live in a place where you and your people are rejected, you are a widow and you didn’t even get children. That’s scary. As an immigrant myself, I can assure you that it takes courage to surrender what is yours and your people to go and live somewhere else. Even more, Ruth had lost her husband. So painful! In the midst of this all, she decides to stay with the mother of her husband and to embrace the people of Israel and their God. We can even see in the story that false gods were followed in Moab, so we can assume that Ruth was sort of like a ‘young believer’ of the true living God. Still, she makes the decision that made her shine in the eyes of God: her choice was to remain loyal to her mother-in-law and faithful to God. I once read a quote from Mike Bickle that shook my whole christian view on life:
“I don’t want to be the biggest or the best, I want to be faithful”
This is exactly what I see in Ruth. This is exactly why God gave a whole book for her in the Bible. She remained faithful, even when she had absolutely no idea that her story would become so famous and encourage so many. She remained loyal to Naomi and honoured her by going to work hard in the fields to provide for the both of them. She even showed integrity when meeting Boaz. All of this was impossible to be hidden from the eyes of God. His hand was over her, granting her favour. God even gave her a legacy that has a great impact in our lives: she and Boaz had a child who was in the lineage of Jesus, our Saviour!
Be great in small things
Sometimes we may think that we aren’t doing anything really spectacular or something worth recognition. Doing the laundry, giving food to our kids, being kind to the lady at the supermarket or taking some time to pray every morning in the quiet, doesn’t always seem like great things to do. Or maybe we think it is not a big deal every time we decide to not fall in sin even in the most insignificant situations. We even may think at some point that our involvement in ministry isn’t great enough and that we have to achieve more. For sure it is a good thing to want to be excellent, diligent and fruitful in our service to the Lord, but the matter here is the motivation of the heart. Do we want to be the biggest or the best? Or do we want to be faithful, loyal and steadfast?
How can we be great? Simply just by being faithful.
In which areas of your life is God showing you to remain faithful to Him and in the situation? What can you learn from Ruth’s character? How can you remain faithful? In whatever season you are in life, God’s attention is on you. Jesus said that even when you give a cup of water in His name, this is precious to his heart and he will reward it (Matthew 10:42). On the day He returns, the very thing he will recognise in us is our faithfulness (Matthew 25:21). How can we be great? Simply just by being faithful.
Read also: Be strong and courageous
