I pray that you all have had a blessed week. Have you been practicing humility and expecting God's favor? Last week's lesson really helped me reflect on all the many times God has graced me with His favor. Just the fact that I am here living out Lord for Him is evidence of His favor.
Additionally, focusing on humility has definitely challenged me. Placing the mirror on myself and really seeing my own pride has caused me to make some necessary changes to the blind spots of pride in my life. This walk with Christ is a process and we should be ever changing and growing in Him. He doesn't change, BUT WE MUST CHANGE, to become more like Him (Hebrews 13:8, Malachi 3:6, Psalm 102:25-27). We are born into to sin and through redemption in Him we are saved (Psalm 51:5-6). That redemption is a source of change (Galatians 2:20, Colossians 1:14, Ephesians 1:7-14).
This redemption, this change, can only come when we open our hearts to the Lord, our Savior. To be open to Him is to have a teachable spirit, open to changing, submissiveness, humility, and obedience. That brings us to what we will discuss today, obedience to positioning. We will see how Ruth humbled herself from last lesson, practices humility and positions herself in this lesson.
RESOURCE
Ruth 3:1-5
Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, shall I not seek security for you, that it may be well with you? Now Boaz, whose young women you were with, is he not our relative? In fact, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Therefore wash yourself and anoint yourself, put on your best garment and go down to the threshing floor; but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. Then it shall be, when he lies down, that you shall notice the place where he lies; and you shall go in, uncover his feet, and lie down; and he will tell you what you should do.” And she said to her, “All that you say to me I will do.”
Obedience - dutiful or submissive behavior with respect; the trait of being willing; pleasing behavior
Positioning - putting something/someone in a certain; to be in line or in position; emplacement
LESSON
So many sermons and bible studies focus on the loyalty of Ruth to her mother-in-law; it is definitely the claim to fame for this book of the bible. However, there is so much rich content in this book and it has so many more of God's principles to offer to us. The deeper we go into the study of the Book of Ruth, the greater the possibility to learn God's purpose for us in regards to its content.
Here we see Naomi exhibiting the qualities of the woman depicted in Titus 2 (Titus 2:3-5). Naomi is practicing obedience to the Lord our Savior, by teaching and guiding Ruth towards positioning herself. The obedience started with Naomi. Her wisdom projected these things for her daughter (Henry 1999). Naomi was obedient to God and to the laws of the land (Romans 13). Naomi was mindful of the authority that God placed over her; she honored the present laws in place and approached them in a meek, modest, and humble manner. She instructed Ruth in accordance to the laws of the present time and guided Ruth to her God ordained position. Naomi set the foundation for Ruth's obedience (Titus 2:7).
Then Ruth, being the of a humble spirit operated in the example of obedience that Naomi exhibited. Ruth did just as Naomi instructed in order to position herself for God's blessing. We must step outside of our own selves in order to receive what God has for us. He knows better for us than we know for ourselves (Luke 12:7, Matthew 10:30). Yet, we operate in our might and our own will (Zechariah 4:7). We are looking for things from God but we are unwilling to operate in His purpose for us to obtain them. We have to believe God will do what He says He will do (Moore 2008). His promises are from everlasting to everlasting (Psalms 145:13). We must stand firm on His promises for our lives and act accordingly (Ephesians 5:17).
What does this look like in our lives? We must heed the word of God when He is speaking to us directly, through people that He has placed in authority over us, and who He has sent to give us wise counsel. Single women, you can honor God by positioning yourselves through the wisdom of a Titus 2 woman for God to send your groom and/or build a ministry in you (Titus 2:4-5) Married women, you can honor God by willfully submitting to the authority God has placed over you in your husband and watch God bless your marriage to be a blessing not only to you and your husband, but to others (Ephesians 5: 22-23). Men, submit yourselves to Christ and watch God pour out a supernatural blessing that you could not conceive (James 4:7&10). All of these acts start with obedience; obedience to the word of God, obedience to the authority over your life, obedience to God's plans for your lives, and most of all direct obedience to God. Obedience positions us to God's blessing for us.
APPLICATION
This week I want us to challenge ourselves to a new level of consciousness. When we studied Esther, we talked about obedience and we practiced obedience in the application portion of that lesson. This time we will add humility, meekness, and surrending to the word of God in order to find the level of obedience that God is requiring of us. The type of obedience that will position us to receive answers to prayers, changes in our situations, inconceivable blessings from heaven, and draw us closer to Christ. I challenge us all to rise early in the morning and seek God for the areas/situations in our lives that require this type of obedience that leads to positioning. Picture yourself being blindfolded and being lead by the awesome wondrous God! You have your life's blueprint of blessings to go by, in addition to God's word, faith, trust, and now obedience. How wonderful it could be!
I pray that God will reveal His many blessings for our lives to us on this journey.
Have a blessed week!
Be blessed,
T. Carter
REFERENCES
All scriptures are extracted from The Bible - New King James Version. YouVersion (2013).
Henry, Matthew (1999). Mathew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible. Nelson Publishing. Nashville, Tennessee
Moore, Beth (2008). Believing God Day by Day. B & H Publishing. Nashville, Tennessee
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