Week 19: Faithfulness Matters

This week's Bible reading plan is as follows:

* Sunday: Ruth 2:1-4:22; John 4:43-54;Psalm 105:16-36; Proverbs 14:26-27
* Monday: 1 Samuel 1:1-2:21; John 5:1-23; Psalm 105:37-45; Proverbs 14:28-29
* Tuesday: 1 Samuel 2:22-4:22; John 5:24-47; Psalm 106:1-12; Proverbs 14:30-31
* Wednesday: 1 Samuel 5:1-7:17; John 6:1-21; Psalm 106:13-31; Proverbs 14:32-33
* Thursday: 1 Samuel 8:1-9:27; John 6:22-42; Psalm 106:32-48; Proverbs 14:34-35
* Friday: 1 Samuel 10:1-11:15; John 6:43-71; Psalm 107:1-43; Proverbs 15:1-3
* Saturday: 1 Samuel 12:1-13:23; John 7:1-30; Psalm 108:1-13; Proverbs 15:4

Scripture: Ruth 4:13-15
"So Boaz took Ruth into his home, and she became his wife. When he slept with her, the Lord enabled her to become pregnant, and she gave birth to a son. Then the women of the town said to Naomi, 'Praise the Lord, who has now provided a redeemer for your family! May this child be famous in Israel. May he restore your youth and care for you in your old age. For he is the son of your daughter-in-law who loves you and has been better to you than seven sons!'"

Observation:
The book of Ruth comes right after the book of Judges. The events that Ruth depicts occurred during the period of the Judges, but the contrast between Judges and Ruth is stunning. While Judges recounts one set of moral and spiritual failures after another, Ruth tells the story of one woman's faithfulness and its impact on the entire story of salvation from that point forward. And the woman was a non-Israelite no less! Ruth stuck by her mother-in-law, Naomi, long after Ruth’s husband died. When it came time for Naomi to return home, Ruth left everything behind to follow her, saying, "Don't ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us" (Ruth 1:16, 17). Because of Ruth's faithfulness, God opened the way for her to marry Boaz, and in so doing, he made Ruth, a Moabite woman who otherwise would have had no claim in God's inheritance, the great-grandmother of King David, and descendent of Jesus Christ! (See Matthew 1:5; Luke 3:32.)

Application:
One person's faithfulness, carried out in utter obscurity, has the potential to change the world! Ruth had no intention of becoming the great-grandmother of the greatest king in Israel's history or an elite member of Israel's messianic lineage. She was simply doing the right thing in her own time and place. That's all I can do. It's all any of us can do. What God does with our faithfulness is a matter of his own designs. My takeaway from this reflection is that faithfulness matters. I therefore want to be attentive to the ways God would have me be faithful right now, on this day, in this moment, to his glory.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank you for Ruth's example of faithfulness. You blessed her in ways that she could never have imagined. What strikes me is that she had absolutely no aspirations of greatness in mind. She did what she did because it was the right thing to do. Period. I want to follow her example in my life. I want to go wherever you want to take me. I want to live in your presence. I want to love your people and call them my own. I want to be faithful all the days of my life and dwell in your everlasting Kingdom forever. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen!