Good morning,
The power of God’s love
One of the confusing parts of becoming a part of God’s family is that we need a new dictionary to understand our new lover. Because everyone, when born, is a natural sinner. We come with a built in understanding of what is going on around us. On one hand, our Creator God, has built into us an instinctive set of guidelines that is based on the fact that we are made in the image of God. Deep down inside we long for love and the safety of a loving relationship with the those around us. On the other hand, because of our sin nature, we naturally want to be in control of our lives and our environment. Our sworn enemy, Satan, does his best to use fear and guilt to train us to love those around us for our own safety and to resent and fear anyone who requires us to do things that we don’t want to do. As we grow up we develop a dictionary of words and their meanings based on our self centered life style and what the world around us tells us is right and wrong. When we look to God for his love and forgiveness, and we become a member of his family, we discover that the words we have been using for how we live our lives are actually twisted versions of the words God gave us to understand life and love.
The Bible is God’s dictionary for knowing the true meaning of the words that we use for life and how we should be living it. One of the most beautiful examples of how God’s love works in one of God’s family is found in the book of Ruth in the Old Testament. A couple and their two sons became refugees because of a famine and went to a nearby enemy country to live. First the husband died. Then the two sons each married local women only to die after ten years. Life was very difficult for them. Now the mother, Naomi, and the girls heard that things were good back in Israel and started to travel back to Naomi’s old home town. Suddenly Naomi stopped and told the girls that they should go back to their old homes and old gods. One daughter-in-law said goodby and left for home. But Ruth, the other widow, demonstrated in a wonderful way how love works, God’s way. She said, "Don't ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!”(Ruth 1:16,17) Because of God’s love, her response came from a determined love that was focused on a relationship, not on the what- if’s that come with fear and staying in control. Her years of knowing Naomi and her new love for Naomi’s God had won her heart and soul. She was willing to face whatever God would do, in a foreign enemy land, with an aging Mother-in-law, with no guarantees of success. She just knew she was safe in God’s hands. Dear Lord, would you help us to love you and trust you like Ruth did?
Ruth 1:16 But Ruth replied, "Don't ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. 17 Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!"
Roy Wisner
