Author: missionspaul

Silence the voice of discouragement – Ruth 1: 14 – 19a

She was determined , v16-18
Verse 16 is one of the most classic statements of faithfulness, loving commitment and overall determination in the Bible.
Your determination will silence the voice of discouragement.
How can discouragement beat me when I am determined in my purpose of life?
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21

How can discouragement beat me when I am determined in my service?
Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve … as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24: 15

How can discouragement beat me when I am determined in my status as a Christian?
In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:37

Its never too late to become determined again.
You may have experienced failure, you may have been overwhelmed with discouragement and you may have quit from everything in your life, but TODAY you can receive His touch on your life and rise in a new level of determination. When you think its all over God comes in and says we haven’t begun yet.
Its never too late.
One day you will meet Christ face to face and I think we all will say:
“Jesus thank you for enduring so much. Thank you for being so determined to go to the cross. Because you remained in that place, you purchased my freedom, my sins were forgiven, my life transformed, you changed my world and guaranteed my eternity.”

Silence the voice of discouragement – Ruth 1: 14 – 19a

She wasn’t affected by the actions of others, v15.
Orpah went back home, to her parents, to their home and a future of waiting for a new husband and the prospects of children. She went back to what she knew. She tasted the dream, but discouragement caused her to leave her destiny. She may have ended up in the genealogy of Christ, as Ruth did. She may have moved from obscurity to significance, but she was what might have been. She became a yesterday’s woman.
Naomi urges Ruth to look at Orpah and to follow her back to Moab.
That is exactly what Ruth didn’t do:
a. She didn’t look.
She didn’t look at what Orpah would have:
As for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. Why? For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Psalm 73:3
Be careful what gets your attention.
She didn’t look at what she wouldn’t have:
Discouragement will try and get you to look at other people and by doing so will ultimately get you to look at what you do not have and are not experiencing.
You have chosen a life where on many, many occasions it may appear that you have nothing.
b. She didn’t follow
Who speaks into your life the most and what do they say?
Ruth chose Naomi over Orpah.
The wrong friend can do much more harm to you than your worst enemy. For we can spend half our lives following friends whose influence upon us will drain us of the energy and passion we need.

Silence the voice of discouragement – Ruth 1: 14 – 19a

She clung on to her dream, v14.
In order to cling on to your dream, the dream needs to be value-led.
If your dream consists of goals and plans, a better house, car, career, money, popularity, a better ministry, a bigger church, lead more people to Christ, see more people healed then at some point you will become discouraged and want to give up. Why? Because at times no matter how wonderful the goals are the future looks hopeless.
Naomi had pointed out to Ruth that the future looked bleak. But Ruth clung on, “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.” (v16-17).
Ruth’s dream was to be with Naomi. Naomi was the most important person in her life and so we can say Naomi was her value in life.
One of our personal values is this:
Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.Matthew 6:33
Values take you further than your goals will. Your goals will either be fulfilled or fade away and when they do your values are still there. Values will keep you on the right road.
When your dream is value-led then the journey becomes more exciting than the destination. Having Naomi with Ruth every day was more than anything a goal-led life could bring. Knowing Jesus every day, entering into the secret place, pursuing Him, putting Him first and allowing Him freedom to enter every area of your life then every day with Jesus is better than the day before.

Silence the voice of discouragement – Ruth 1: 14 – 19a

She clung on to her dream, v14.
To Cling means to fasten together with glue or cement.
Naomi was Ruth’s dream, her destiny.
Her future would be through Naomi.
There was no way she was going to stay when Naomi was leaving.
In order to cling on to your dream, you need to let go of your reality.
If your reality is more important than your dream then that is all you’re going to have.
If your reality is all you think about and speak about then that is all that will remain.
We are told in 2:11 that Ruth’s parents were still alive, in 1:8 we can see that their home was still available to Ruth, all that Ruth knew was in Moab, it was her world. But it wasn’t her dream.
I believe some need to let go of the tough time they are in by not complaining about their reality anymore.
To be able to say ‘My reality is not more important than my dream.’
Once you have let go of your reality you will be able to cling on to your dream.

Silence the voice of discouragement – Ruth 1: 14 – 19a

Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th c. preacher wrote about himself and his colleagues
Fits of depression come over the most of us … The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy …
…Such was my experience when I first became a pastor in London. My success appalled me; and the thought of the career which it seemed to open up, so far from elating me, cast me into the lowest depth … Who was I that I should continue to lead so great a multitude?
General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army found himself on more than one occasion with feelings of hopelessness. Writing to his wife, Catherine, he said:
I wonder whether I could not get something to do in London of some kind, some secretaryship or something respectable that would keep us going. I know how things are to obtain without friends or influence, as I am fixed. But we must hope against hope, I suppose.

It seems that every person who ever achieved anything battled at some point with discouragement.

Discouragement is on this path of destiny, of getting to your ‘there’ in God. You will meet it and when you do you need to know how to silence it so that it does not overwhelm you.
Naomi had said “Go back home ..” v8
All three of them cried openly and loudly. Naomi then says “Return home …” v11 and again in v12 “Return home …” They all weep again and Orpah kisses Naomi goodbye.
Ruth is being discouraged by Naomi. She is feeling pain and loss. Over the next few days we will see how Ruth silenced the voice of discouragement?

How to return to there from here, part 7

Ruth 1: 6-14

V14 “Orpah kissed her mother in law goodbye”

In my earlier years of being a pastor I recall spending long hours with members who wanted to attend a different church and not mine. I would do all I could to keep hold of them. I wanted to see a church being built and losing people was not the right way to go about it. They would always tell me not to take it personally, that this had nothing to do with me, I think they thought they were bringing me some comfort. It was like going to the butchers and saying “I won’t be shopping here anymore but don’t take it personally, its not you, its your meat.”

7. But what I really hadn’t grasped at that stage was the truth that some people will only be with you for part of your journey.
There are those that you have to walk away from. 1 Samuel 15:35 and 16:1. There are times when you have to say this:
“I cannot stand around here waiting for you. I cannot stand around mourning my losses, reliving my past and what we could have had. I’ve got to return home. I’m becoming all that I can become and I can’t do that by regretting the past and wishing I had what I once had.”
There are those who will have to walk away from you. John 6:66-67. At these times you have to say this:
“This is who I am, and this is where I am. I’m becoming all that I can become and if you walk away from me then that’s fine. If you don’t like me anymore, if I no longer fit into your personal agenda of what you want. If I am not being the person you want me to be and you don’t want my friendship then I release you to go. I realise you were only there for part of my journey”.
This is all good, because it leads to returning to there from here!

How to return to there from here, part 6

Ruth 1: 6-14

V11-13 “But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for m if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has gone out against me!”

6. Returning isn’t a pleasure trip.
Naomi battled with her bitter state. She had nothing to offer, no more sons and she was too old. There was no hope.
The widow faced loneliness, abandonment and helplessness. Naomi wasn’t just grumbling, this was the truth, her life and the future was bleak. This wasn’t a return of victory. Her life from now on was going to be a struggle.
When you decide to become all that you can become you will at some point of that journey enter into a great struggle. It will be then when you will know whether you desire a pleasure –seeking trip or a problem – solving one.

How to return to there from here, part 5

Ruth 1: 6-14

V8-9 “Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me. May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them and they wept aloud …”

5. Mistakes will be made
Naomi did not want to do to her daughters in law what Elimelech had done to her by taking them away from where they were. Its not enough to simply forget your past, we must learn from it.
In learning from our mistakes we will see that some of them turned out to be the best thing that may have ever happened to us. Elimelechs mistake took Naomi to Moab and to receiving Ruth into her life.

How to return to there from here, part 4

Ruth 1: 6-14

V7 “… set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.”

4. Your destiny is secured when you are in the right place and doing the right thing.
The right place was the road to Judah and the right thing to do was they made the journey.
In C S Lewis’ The Magicians Nephew, Digory and Polly come to a place they called ‘The Wood between the Worlds’, here they would jump into pools of water and end in a completely different place.
There is a place that will take you into a whole new way of life. It’s not the road to Judah nor is it the Wood between the Worlds. It is a secret place.
Matthew 6:6 – But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
You cannot do the right things until you are in the right place. The right thing is to stay in the right place. That is why everything will distract you from building a life of prayer. For your enemy knows if you do the right thing in the right place you will arrive at your destiny, you will become all that you can become, it is secured.

How to return to there from here, part 3

Ruth 1: 6-14

V7 “…she left the place where she had been living..”

3. If you don’t leave you will never arrive
Naomi left what she had known. Maybe there are things in our lives, things that we are so familiar with that we simply need to leave.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. Hebrews 11:8.
God will not show you what you can become and where He can take you unless you leave first. He asks us to live by faith not by sight.

Will you let go today and trust God in this journey?