Category: Devotions

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?

How to return to there from here, part 2

Ruth 1: 6-14

V6 “…prepared to return home.”

2. Get ready because there’s no coming back
Going on holiday and moving house are quite different. It is different in preparation. For a holiday you take as much as you need or are allowed to carry in your suitcase. When you move house, you take everything.
It is different in the end result. Wherever the holiday has been you always look forward to your own bed because it’s good to be away but always good to be home. When you’ve moved house you cannot go back and knock on the door and say “Let me in, it’s raining. I’ll just take a quick bath and then have a lie down on the bed.” You have no authority to your past life.
Too many want to move forward, become all that they can become and do it all in a holiday and then return to their life and what they know and their comforts.
It’s time to make final preparations and make our preparations final. No longer on daytrips with God but to say, “I’m getting ready to become all that I can become and there is no coming back to my old way of thinking, attitudes and commitments.”

How to return to there from here, part 1

Ruth 1: 6-14

Lucy philosophises to Charlie Brown: “Charlie Brown, life is a lot like this deck chair. Some place it to see where they’ve been and some so they can see where they are at present.”
Charlie Brown sighs: “I can’t even get mine unfolded.”
We live in times when people are wandering aimlessly looking for a purpose for life, looking for that big break, that final deal, that one chance in their circumstance that would make all the difference. At times some of that attitude can rub off on to the Christian. We can be like Charlie Brown, life is passing us by so quickly and everyone else seems to have positioned the deck chair of his or her purpose in life, yet we are so incredibly frustrated because what we are waiting for doesn’t seem to be coming.
Over the next 7 days I am going to give you 7 helps in order to return to there from here. I hope they help!

1. Listening will determine your action.
V6 “When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come …”
Even though in Moab there was no prophetic voice, Naomi heard. You can be in a time and a place where God’s voice seems very distant and yet motivation will come to you when you hear what He is doing in other places.
How she heard we are not told, but she had obviously kept lines of communication open with people back home.
Let us be open to what God is doing in other places and not shut ourselves away, for if we do we just may step into the purpose God has for our lives.

I’ve been robbed
Ruth 1:1-5
They had left God’s place to escape death, but the three men met their death nevertheless. They had planned only to live for a while in Moab, but they remained ten years. At the end of those ten years, all that remained were three lonely widows. Everything else was gone.
The biggest problem is not the problems, but the problems of inside, the unbelieving and disobedient heart. That will cause us to lose so many things.
Naomi had lost two things:
Her husband and two sons had died before their time. They had years to live, certainly for the sons, but they were no more. It was just a dream that never came true.
Of most importance was the carrying on of the family name. How more devastating for Naomi is that not only has she lost three loved ones, there is no heir by which the names will be continued and the inheritance guaranteed.
She has lost her future. Naomi would have to come to the realisation that everything has gone because she moved away from God.
The Old Testament word for wisdom means sound judgement, discernment and the ability to see things in a right perspective.
The New Testament word for wisdom means the insight into deep things, an understanding, a spiritual intelligence and a full understanding.
Naomi would need the wisdom to determine that this has not been God’s best for her life and that she would need to do something about it. Ultimately that would be to return to Him, to the place she had come from.
What about us? Do we need discernment to know that what we have lost is a result of God’s will for our lives or whether it is the cause of some direct attack from the enemy, simply because we have walked away from the closeness of God.