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Faith, Don't Fail Me Now
Faith, Don’t Fail Me Now
Ruth 1:16 – And Ruth said, “Urge me not to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God.”
I have become a fan of the “Lifetime” Channel, since becoming married. I vividly recall watching a “Lifetime” movie, in which a little boy was kidnapped from the park, while in the care of his older brother. The older brother was distracted for a moment, but it was enough for some stranger to come along and snag his little brother away. The mother was devastated by the news. She spent years searching for her son, but to no avail. During this time, the mother was paralyzed with grief. In addition to her despair, she failed to appreciate what she had left – a husband, a son, and a daughter who loved her unconditionally.
Like this fictional “Lifetime” channel mother, in our scriptural text, Naomi lost those she loved in Moab as well. Naomi lost her husband and two sons to death. When her husband and sons were no more in the land of the living, she began to sojourn back to Judah for she heard the famine was over (Ruth 1:6-7). Her daughter-in-laws (Orpah and Ruth) wanted to journey with her, but Naomi wanted to travel back to her land alone (Ruth 1:8-9). She did not want to be a burden to them, not appreciating they wanted to continue to deal kindly with her. Naomi tried effortlessly to persuade Orpah and Ruth with many rhetorical questions, such as, “Why will you go with me?” “Have I yet sons in my womb that may become your husbands?” “If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband tonight and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown?” “Would you therefore refrain from marrying?” Finally, she qualifies her reasoning with verse 13, “No, my daughters; it is far more bitter for me than for you that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me.”
Despite Naomi’s attempts to convince her daughter-in-laws to go back to Moab, Ruth still clung to her. Nevertheless, Naomi was still depressed, for when she returned to Bethlehem, she had this testimony, “Call me not Naomi (pleasant); call me Mara (bitter), for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, but the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?” (Ruth 1:20-21). Naomi was so paralyzed with grief, she even failed to recognize why she even left in the first place. She left because they were empty and needed to be made full (Ruth 1:1-2). Now she is saying she left full and have come back empty. Yet, Ruth still stood by her, determined never to leave her side.
Like Naomi, we may feel bitter. We may feel defeated as a result of the harsh and unfair blows dealt to us in this life. However, we must pray for our faith in God to never fail us and when we are converted strengthen each other (Luke 22:31-32). We need for our faith to remain strong through it all, so we may claim and appreciate the gifts we have; even in the midst of our tragedies and losses. Let us pray to God to show us the rainbows after the flood, new life after death, and gain in the midst of our losses. Now is not the time for our faith to fail us!
