Lent Day 21 - Which place are you?

We set off for Bethlehem. I never thought I’d ever leave Moab, and now here I am with all my worldly possessions, trudging along, leaving my home behind. Bethlehem is not far from Moab, but it feels a long way at the moment. After we’d been travelling a while, Naomi suddenly stopped. Right in the middle of the road. She stood there, looking at the ground. She looked in the direction of Bethlehem and slowly turned her head to look back the way we’d come. Then she said something that cut me to the heart.

I can still feel it now. ‘Go back.’ She was talking to Orpah and me. She meant we should leave her. We said no, but Naomi insisted. She started saying she wouldn’t have more sons for us to marry, and that we should go back and marry into other families. I couldn’t believe it. We were all sobbing, and then I heard Orpah saying goodbye to Naomi. Orpah was going back. I watched her walking further and further away. Then I hugged Naomi as though I would never let go.

Orpah set off with Naomi, insisted she’d stay, but then something made her change her mind.

Let’s look at Matthew 13:

Jesus is talking about farming. Specifically, crop farming. Even more specifically, about one farmer. This farmer is sowing. As he walks along, he scatters seeds either side of him. Some land on good soil. Those will grow. Some land on the path. The birds will eat those seeds before they can do any growing. Some fall on rocky places, without much soil. Those seeds will grow, but then die because they have no root. Some land on thorns. The thorns will choke those plants as they grow. Then Jesus adds a twist to the story. The seed, he says, is not just seed. It represents the kingdom message of God. The places where the seed lands, he says, are not just places. They are you. And you. And you.

The question is, which place are you? Are you a path? Already in a place where you can’t receive God’s word? It will bounce off you. You’re closed to it.

Hebrews 3:7,8 (nlt):

‘Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts’. Are you rocky places? God’s word grows in you, and then things snatch it away. Difficulties, worries, busyness squash God’s word from your life and priorities.

Psalm 51:10:

‘Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.’ Are you thorns?

Trying to hold God’s word alongside other things? Perhaps fully committed to neither? If we allow them to, even good things can take our focus from God and his word.

Revelation 3:15 (nlt):

‘I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other!’ Are you fertile soil? Hearing God’s word and letting it take root and grow in your life?

Luke 11:28:

‘Blessed . . . are those who hear the word of God and obey it.’ Because we have Jesus, the kingdom of God is among us (Luke 17:21). Do we allow it to flourish?

Orpah was a bit like a rocky place. She’d been determined to stay with Naomi. But then something changed. Perhaps Orpah looked ahead into the unknown she was travelling to and was scared. Perhaps it seemed safer to go back and stick with what she knew. Even though that meant not following Naomi, whom she’d just promised not to leave.

In John 6, lots of people who set out to follow Jesus are turning away. It’s too hard. Trusting God with their future is too difficult. It’s unknown. And they turn back to what they know. Jesus looks at those who are left and asks them, ‘Do you want to turn back, too? Do you want to go away from me?’ Peter replies, ‘Where else would we go? You are the only one who can give us true life.’

We want to stay. Ruth stayed.

Others may walk away, but you and I can choose to stay. Rooted in good soil. I want to stay

I kneel before the Father, who knows me by name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he will strengthen me with power through his Spirit in my inner being, so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith. May I, being rooted and established in love, have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14–19, based on niv)

Taken from 30 Days with Ruth by Emily Owen

A thirty day devotional look at ‘Ruth’s diary’ with thought provoking points, prayers and questions to help explore this much-loved story in a new way.

What must it have been like to be Ruth, transformed from a widow in a foreign land to become the great-grandmother of King David?

Emily Owen explores these questions through Ruth's 'diary', sharing in her trials, her excitements, her challenges, fears and joys. Each chapter begins with a 'diary extract' from Ruth's life, which is then beautifully unpacked with a meditation to encourage you to reflect on how that applies today. Each meditation is encouraging yet challenging, and helpful for personal growth.

Join Ruth on a devotional journey to see the biblical story from a fresh perspective.

Father God, I want to stay. Help me, help my life be good soil, where the kingdom of God can flourish. I want to stay. Amen