Ruth 1:15-18 (NIV)
15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” 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 even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
I love the phrase, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” It’s about taking life’s sourness and turning it into something sweet. When we face trials in life, we usually have three options: endure them, escape them, or engage them.
The problem with simply enduring trials is that they often end up mastering us, leaving us bitter. If we try to escape them, we miss out on what God is trying to produce in us. But if we choose to engage them, we master our trials instead—and they end up serving us. When we engage with our trials, God works all things together for our good and His glory.
In the story of Ruth, we meet an Israelite family who chooses the path of escape, a decision that ultimately ends in tragedy. Yet out of that tragedy, good emerges—good that comes through the person of Ruth. She was a Moabite woman who would not have been naturally welcomed into the Israelite community, yet she found tremendous favor with God. Why? Because she came to love the one true God, rejected her former false gods, and engaged her trials with steadfast faith.
This Sunday, my prayer is that Ruth’s life will encourage your faith. As we observe her journey, we see a woman who faced countless obstacles, yet kept her eyes fixed on the Lord.
Friends, fix your eyes on the Author and Finisher of your faith. Follow Him courageously—even when everything and everyone else is shouting, “Don’t do it!” Instead, listen for that still, small voice that says, “Trust in Me.”
Many blessings to you all,
Pastor Blake