Commitment in Adversity

"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. 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 1:16-17

When I made a commitment to marry a preacher, it was with joy, excitement and the dream of serving God with all my heart. Up to that point, I had experienced good health, success, achievement, praise and gratitude. I had ever reason to expect that a life of ministry would mean more of the same - plus greater joy and usefulness. I was not prepared for serious and debilitating illness, the miscarriage of a baby, the trauma of financially troubled church and personal attacks from the family of faith.

Within one of my husband's sermons, I found a nugget of hope: "Our adversities are God's universities." The adversities drove me to God, and God had what I needed to endure and fulfill the commitment I had made.

In Ruth 1:16-17 the innocent young widow Ruth expressed her passionate and devoted love for her old and bitter mother-in-law. It was not Naomi's beauty, wealth or even joyfulness that drew Ruth to her, for all of these had long since fallen away. Rather it was Naomi's faith in the living God, her spiritual wisdom and her consistent piety that bound the young pagan widow to her. Ruth made a commitment to travel, live and pursue life with Naomi, to accept her God and even to die and be buried in Naomi's homeland. Her commitment was not just with loving words and well-meaning feelings, as her sister-in-law Orpah (Ruth 1:14), but with purposeful love and devoted deeds.

Commitment must be fueled not merely by head knowledge but also by heart determination. Ruth had nothing to offer to Naomi or to God but herself, and that she have willingly and eagerly. Every woman, whatever her circumstances or position, has at least that to give the Savior, and it is enough!

By Dorothy Patterson, taken from "Women's Devotional Bible 2"

Bible Reading Guide:

Beginning to End: Acts 11-13
Old and New Testaments Together: Ezek. 5-7 & Hebrews 12
Historical: Luke 8-9
Chronological: Acts 4-6
Blended: I Chron. 19-21 & Luke 2:25-52

The Bible reading guides will be taken from Back to the Bible