Daily Devotion 8/22/18
Ruth 1:16-18 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. 17 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.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Ruth had gone through a hardship as well. She experienced the pain of her husband dying. It would have been more convenient to go back home. But she didn’t. Why? Because she had come to believe in the Savior-God. The only true God who could heal her heart. Think of all she was giving up: she wouldn’t see her niece and nephew again. She wouldn’t be there to take care of her parents when they got old. She wouldn’t be there for friends’ weddings. But that was okay with her because she knew it was more vital to know the Savior-God. So she was going to go with Naomi because Naomi was her connection to that Savior-God. There’s a lot of things that want your attention during hardships. You may even be tempted to say, “We just need time away from church right now.” Or, “There’s just so many things to pay attention to, I need to cut one out. So right now it is church.” Those things are important, but they aren’t vital. Vital is hearing about Jesus because it is only through him that you are saved. It is only through him that heaven is yours. So lean on your Christian friends. That’s what they are there for: to encourage you to remain close to the Savior who gives you hope, forgiveness, and the promise of a future in heaven.
Dear Jesus, thank you for my church family and my Christian friends who encourage me in my faith in you. Keep me close to you no matter what happens. Let me always remember that you are the most vital person for my life and my family’s life. Amen.