Your People Shall be My People

"Your people shall be my people, and your God my God." Ruth 1:16

That was the best decision Ruth ever made. It opened the door to blessing upon blessing. Ruth married one of the sons of Naomi and Elimelech. When Elimelech and his two sons died, Naomi urged her daughters-in-law to go back to their mothers and their Moabite people with their own gods. Orpah, one daughter-in-law, left them, but Ruth insisted on staying with Naomi. 

"Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you! For wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God." We can say that Ruth, who lived with Naomi witnessed Naomi's faith and was attracted to that. She was willing to go with Naomi to a strange place and be among a strange people. Perhaps she felt God calling her. Perhaps she felt a conviction of her purpose. Whatever it was that provoked her loyalty to Naomi, Ruth would never have guessed that she would eventually, through her marriage to Boaz, become grandmother to King David. In her wildest dreams she would never have imagined her name would be in the Bible (Matthew 1:5), along with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, King David and Solomon, and Saint Joseph and Mary! 

Our decisions every day may not have the same impact, but one thing is sure. If we decide to put God first, as Jesus said in Matthew 22:37, "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your mind," it will open the floodgates of blessing. God is a God of surprises and He delights in blessing those who put their trust and hope in Him.