Ruth and Boaz: Quite a Surprise!
Ruth and Boaz were amazingly blessed with each other and the new family God had for them. God makes a home for the lonely and He certainly did for them –and for Naomi as well. You can bet it was a wildly happy home. In this, however, they were part of a great God-plan also. In their wildest imaginations, they couldn’t imagine what God was up to. God blessed them…and they became a world-shaking blessing.
They were used by God to bring blessings to others that rippled through thousands of years as their children had children who had children. David was born who affected a nation powerfully for good and brought us his incredible inspired Psalms.
If that wasn’t enough, Boaz’s and Ruth’s grandchildren train stretched to a young couple traveling a hundred miles slugging out the journey to make it to a very humble animal spot just in the nick of time,. They were joined by animal tenders as they held their tiny newborn son who would one day make possible their entrance into God’s wildly-wonderful heaven–and your entrance and mine, too.
God was able to bless them…because they sought Him with all their hearts and they loved Him with everything inside them. God poured on the firehose of wow-I-can’t-believe-this-is-happening-to-me blessings and they became an unthinkable, unimaginable blessing to so many others that they couldn’t count them if they spent their entire lifetime trying to.
Light Shall Shine on Your Ways
Job 22:28 says something quite powerful; “Light shall shine on your ways.” To have Light shine on our ways is to have God come into our circumstances. This is what happened to Ruth and Boaz. Sometimes those situations can be quite bleak, without any light and any hope.
There was a time when I dared something extraordinary that I strongly felt that God was wanting me to do. The process of doing it drug out quite a bit longer than I anticipated and the task turned out to be much more challenging than I ever imagined. This part I didn’t mind so much because the Lord was helping every step of the way. What began to hit hard, though, was finances.
Things cost more than I anticipated and the only place to go was forward. This necessitated liquidating any extras and cutting all expenses drastically. .I knew that God hadn’t abandoned us, but there were sure days when it felt like He had. It was a struggle to not despair and keep trusting the Lord . I couldn’t understand why He was letting it get so hard.
Then one day light shined on my ways. God broke in so powerfully that in one hour every financial need was taken care of super abundantly. The work I felt called to venture out in was helped in ways that astonished me and it spread nearly overnight to thousands of families. Everything changed.
Why did God allow it to get so hard? I don’t know. One thing I do know, though, is that on this side of the problem, I have a deep sense of, “I cannot do this without God’s help.” It doesn’t matter if it is a small matter or a medium-sized problem or a big need–anything. My instinctive reaction is an immediate turning of my heart to the Lord.
It was like this significantly before…but somehow it deepened greatly.
Work in You
Philippians 2:12 reads, “…for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” This verse tells us that God is working in us what He desires. The only thing that I can conclude in this experience is that–as I moved through the difficulty trying to follow the Lord and please Him–somehow He was working in my heart.
Isaiah 41:25 has these words, “From the rising of the sun he shall call on My name… ” This describes what happened inside me. From the moment I would wake up, I’d have a great hunger to seek the Lord and look to Him regardingeverything in my life; the needs, the hoped for blessings, the necessity of getting wisdom for creativity, strategy, guidance, and for every relationship. All this was there before and then it became hugely more.so–and it continues to this day. And interestingly, so is the amount the Lord does all day long.
If it’s been a tough road for a spell and you love the Lord, be encouraged. The Alpha and the Omega–the Creator of the twinkling stars you see on a warm summer night–will miraculously work wonders of completely unexpected beauty –at exactly the right time. He IS a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. And having God’s light powerfully shine on our ways and alter our experiences is indescribably good!
