Following God – July 10, 2022

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.”
Ruth 1:16

Following God

Following God is not always easy. He never said it would be. Jesus himself insisted that in order to follow him we must daily pick up our cross—whatever that cross might be. It has always been this way. Following God is not easy.

A woman named Ruth discovered this reality. She was not one of God’s people by birth. She was a foreigner from the land of Moab. But she had married an Israelite man and had learned about the Lord from her husband and his family. Then, tragedy struck. Her husband died along with her husband’s brother and father. When Ruth’s mother-in-law decided to go back to Israel, Ruth went with her. It was not easy. She left everyone and everything she knew. But she was determined. You see, Ruth had come to trust in the God of Israel. She could not stay in Moab and worship the false gods found there. It was not easy to leave, but if that was what it took to follow the true God, then that was what Ruth would do.

Thank God that he has forgiven us for the many times we have failed to follow him, times we have gone our own way. Thank him today by following him no matter how difficult the road might be.

Prayer:
Thank you, Jesus, for perfectly following your Father’s will in my place. Help me bear whatever crosses come my way that I may follow you this day. Amen.