Ruth 1:1-8
1 In the days when the judges ruled, [a] there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
3 Now Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
6 When she heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me.
Ruth 1:16-17
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. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”
Ruth 1:22
22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
Related Text:
2 Samuel 3:14-16
Proverbs 20:6
1 Corinthians 13
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Think About It
God rewards our faithfulness. He rewards our obedience and our love. But we have to be aware, we have to be looking for it. I’s not going to show up in our mail box with a giant tag on it that says, “This is God’s reward for serving on that mission trip back in the summer of 2009.”
When our relationship with God is close and tight, when we are in tune with God and His plans and His will, we will be better able to understand what He is doing in our lives. When we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. We will be more able to discern His movement and we will be more able to recognize His blessings.
Praise God today for His blessings in your life. Praise Him when He gives you rewards. Then use them to bless others as well!
