Allow the Lord to Use You
There is a story of a woman named Ruth—a foreigner to Israel—found in a small book called “Ruth” sandwiched in-between Judges and 1 Samuel. Her tale is one of heartbreak and of loss but also one of redemption and favor. Ruth was no ordinary woman but a woman of great dedication and devotion.
Her husband’s family was from Israel but had moved to Moab during a time of famine; Moab is where Mahlon, Ruth’s husband, had met and married her. As time went on, not only did Ruth’s husband die but her father-in-law and her brother-in-law died as well. Ruth and her sister-in-law, Orpah, stayed with their mother-in-law, Naomi, for a period of time after that.
Then Naomi, after hearing that there was food again in Israel, decided to go back. Ruth and her sister-in-law began the journey with Naomi but before long, Naomi decided that the young women should go back to their own people in Moab. Neither woman wanted that, but eventually Orpah acquiesced and went home. But Ruth…Ruth could not make herself do it. Look at her response to Naomi:
“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 even death separates you and me.’ “ Ruth 1:16,17 The intense amount of devotion is breath-taking…
My heart is rent within me every single time I read this story and consider her words in this passage. I pray earnestly and deeply that this would be my heart and dedication in everything pertaining to the Lord…where He goes, I will go…let NOTHING separate me from Him, from His will, from His plan, from His purpose, from His heart…
And the beauty of it is, in this story of Ruth, that one single decision—the decision to follow her mother-in-law back to the land of Israel, to land of the chosen people of God—that one solitary decision changed the course of history.
From the lineage of Ruth, who married Boaz, an Israelite (an amazing man with a heart of integrity, generosity, grace, and kindness), from her lineage came God’s anointed king for Israel—David, a man after God’s own Heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). He was Ruth’s great grandson.
And here’s the clincher, my friends…not only did King David come from Ruth’s lineage but THE King of kings and the Lord of lords—Jesus Christ of Nazareth—is in the lineage of Ruth as well. Wow!!
Ruth was a foreigner to the land, seemingly the least likely person to fulfill the high purposes and calling of God. She was not of noble birth or of great stature but because of her constant willingness, pure heart, dedication to doing the right thing, God used her, again, to change the course of history. Why not you and me?
Today, let’s allow our story to be like Ruth’s. Let’s allow the Lord to use us. Let’s be dedicated to doing the right thing, to having a pure and willing heart that will always say “yes” to the things of God. Let’s cling to Him in the same way Ruth clung to Naomi and to the promises of the people of God.
Katie Botello
FBC Aztec Member