by B Hicks
Naomi was left with nothing but two daughter-in-laws. In the first chapter of Ruth, Naomi suffered massive loss. In a foreign land, I’m sure she grieved. Grieved for her homeland and the husband and two sons she lost to death. Life was terrible and it seemed God had abandoned her. Then word came that God had provided food for His people in Judah. Naomi decided she wanted to go home. The journey would not be easy. There wasn’t a bus or train that she could hop on and be there in a flash. It would be a long, tough, exhausting and dangerous journey with mountains and maybe even robbers. I wonder what feelings stirred in her as she made the journey back home. Was she afraid, insecure, bitter, cautious, frustrated or confident, relaxed, and at peace with her decision? God provided a beautiful story from Naomi and Ruth’s lives. He cared for them. He used others to help Naomi in her time of need. I think about how miserable Naomi’s life would have been if she had stayed in her current situation, not willing to get up and go.
Today, I sit and wonder who might read this and need to make a decision. Will you decide to get up and go or stay where you are. Get up and go seek help for _______________? You name it. What’s your struggle? We can suffer in silence, in a foreign land (a place where God doesn’t intend for us to be) or we can say, “Lord, I’m willing to seek help, to journey to a place of freedom.”
After an eight month separation, the time came in my journey to make a decision about my marriage. I had been involved with L.I.F.E from the beginning of discovery and God had worked miraculously in my heart and life. My husband had embraced recovery and had been sober for five months and I’d seen real change in him. I prayed continuously for God to give me wisdom and direct me...and He did. Not in ways I would have expected but like Naomi he used others to help me in my time of need. God made it very clear to me that he wanted to restore my marriage.The first step was to trust God. The second was to attend counseling with my husband. I was afraid but God gently reminded me, “Do not be afraid”. It was not easy and many times the journey seemed too long and tough for me to handle. As I remember the initial months of hatred I felt towards my husband, it is a complete miracle that I could love and care for someone who hurt me so deeply. Only by God’s grace is this possible. I, like Naomi, couldn’t see how God was going to work out a beautiful story for me but I knew he could.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
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