Weekly Devotional: Following God Even in Sorrow

“For where you will go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16)

Nothing is ever a coincidence when it comes to God. He is constantly guiding and walking with us on our journey throughout life. With Him, you never have to fear what is going to happen or that you will fail, because through it all, He has your life mapped out.

Take Ruth for example. We meet Ruth, a Moabite woman, at the beginning of the book of Ruth. She had just lost her husband and decided to follow her mother-in-law, Naomi, to Bethlehem.

She was probably feeling very depressed and down as she traveled to a new land. She would know no one, have nothing to her name and be in an unfamiliar place. More than likely a few “why” questions crossed her mind.

“Why would this happen to me?”

“Why am I here?”

Naomi especially asked those questions and made her hate towards her situation known. In fact, she changed her name to Mara after her sons die, which means bitter.

When the two women arrive in Bethlehem, Ruth went and gleaned in the fields. Unbeknownst to her, she had just happened to stumble into the field that belonged to a man named Boaz. A man, that would play a very important part in her story.

Boaz was the Kinsman Redeemer for Naomi’s husband’s family. He was the one responsible for buying back the family land and marrying a childless widow to carry on the family name. He was to safeguard the people, property, and posterity of the family. With Naomi’s prompting, Ruth went to Boaz and asked him to redeem her family – in other words – marry her.

The fact that Ruth decided to follow her mother-in-law to a new place showed how God was working in her life. He guided her to Bethlehem, as well as to that field. He wanted Ruth to meet Boaz for a reason. Even though neither of them knew it at the time, God had it all mapped out: the meeting, the conversations, the dates, and the proposal. It took a lot of courage on Ruth’s part to blindly follow God’s plans, but as we see in the Bible, time and time again, that all you need is a little courage and God, to do anything.

I can almost imagine God leaning over a typewriter and writing it all out, smiling the whole way. He knew that even though Naomi’s sons would die, she would be okay. That her daughter-in-law would find a kind husband, who would gift her with a grandson. That the son would be the father of Jesse, the father of David, leading all the way down to Jesus.

What if Ruth’s husband hadn’t died, if Ruth hadn’t gone with Naomi, if she hadn’t gone to glean in that field, or married Boaz?

God had this whole plan in the making, knowing that Ruth would find happiness again with Boaz and that Naomi would be okay, despite all the heartbreak. Leading all the way up to the birth of Jesus, some generations later.

They had no idea what would happen when life hit them hard, but God kept them close and never forgot them and led them to a happiness neither of them could have ever imagined.

So whenever you feel like life is hitting you hard, or that you have no idea what to do. Just remember that God has a plan in place for you. You can’t see it right now, but just know that he is there. Writing every chapter down for you and you only.

All you have to do is follow.

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