Lent Devotional 2020

Reclaiming the Truth


^10 “At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, ‘Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?’

¹¹ Boaz replied, ‘I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. ¹² May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.’” Ruth 2.12

Redeeming the Time


Even Ruth recognizes her story doesn’t make sense. Her character is consistent, unwavering and aligned with a will outside of her own understanding. Boaz sees Ruth’s reliance and simple trust, and he recognizes and blesses the favor in which she rests. Boaz is not stating that Ruth has had to earn favor, yet because of where she placed her favor, she receives God’s refuge. John Piper states it this way, “She has set her heart on God for hope and joy. And when a person does that, God’s honor-not the value of our work is at stake, and he will be merciful. If you plead God’s value as the source of your hope instead of pleading your value as a reason for God’s blessing, then his unwavering commitment to his own glory engages all his heart for your protection and joy.” Ruth loved. Ruth expressed loyalty and diligence not because she needed to prove it or earn it.  Love moved her to this position as she simply answered the invitation to rest under the wings of the Almighty.

Let’s join Ruth.  Let’s choose to rest in the shelter of the Most High and trust Him, follow Him and rest in having received His favor.

Reflection

• Do you ever feel like you need to prove your value or worth?
• Who or where do you turn first for refuge?
• How is God ushering you to be more at rest in Him as your refuge?

Resting in His Redemption


Read and receive the truth of Psalm 147. Take a moment and rest in His refuge. Write a prayer of praise for God being your safe refuge, your mighty help and your shelter. Praise Him for the invitation we have to position ourselves in the shelter of His grace.

Psalm 147.10-11


“His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
    

nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;


¹¹ the Lord delights in those who fear him,
    

who put their hope in his unfailing love.


Psalm 91.1-2

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High    

will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.^[a]

 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    

my God, in whom I trust.”

Reclaiming the Truth 

^13 “So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. ¹⁴ The women said to Naomi: ‘Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! ¹⁵ He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.’”

Redeeming the Time 


Naomi finds herself returning back to Bethlehem with these words, “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.” Ruth 1.20-21 This cup of bitterness is all Naomi could see, understand and feel. Naomi could only see the current day of empty sorrow and deep grief. Little did Naomi know that she had returned to the land where there was currently no King, but one day she would hold in her arms a grandson named Obed, the grandfather of King David, the line of our Messiah.

Do you find yourself living in this space where despair wins, the story seems to have cut you short, and you give in to the bitterness of circumstances? It may all appear to be empty with no light in sight, yet may we learn from the plot of this story that our God is always working. The famines do not go to waste, and the pain does not go in vain. Just as our God made a way and brought Naomi to a place of praise once again, may it remind us that He hasn’t changed. He is worthy to be praised today, even now.

Reflection

• Are there spaces of allowances in your story that keeps you captive with bitterness and despair?
• How have the allowances in your story guided your living?
• Who do you believe God is in the allowances of your story?

Resting in His Redemption


Rest and receive the prayer of Hannah in 1 Samuel chapter 2


“My heart rejoices in the Lord;


In the Lord my horn is lifted high. 


My mouth boasts over my enemies,

for I delight in your deliverance. 


There is no one holy like the Lord;


There is no one besides you;


There is no Rock like our God. 


Do not keep talking so proudly 


Or let your mouth speak such arrogance, 


For the Lord is a God who knows, 


And by him deeds are weighed. 


The bows of the warriors are broken, 


But those who stumbled are armed with strength. 


Those who were full hire themselves out for food, 


But those who were hungry hunger no more. 


She who was barren has borne seven children, 


But she who has had many sons pines away. 


The Lord brings death and makes alive;

He brings down to the grace and raises up. 


The Lord sends poverty and wealth;


He humbles and he exalts.”

Reclaiming the Truth


“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. 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 1:16-18


“He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth”. Ruth 4:15

Redeeming the Time

In the midst of becoming a widow herself, we find an interruption of divine love and see a glimpse of divine loyalty. Ruth exhibits deep loyalty to Naomi and to Naomi’s God. What Ruth knows of God, she knows from Ruth. In the midst of famine, Ruth boldly and courageously says, “I will follow you, I will worship your God who allows such things”. Can you feel such loyalty, belief and sincere love?

We read of Naomi’s hardship and the beauty of relationships grounded in holiness. Ruth leaves Naomi no choice but to receive for such a time. In the midst of dark and trial, Naomi opens her heart to receive the loyalty and love being expressed to her. According to Naomi, she had nothing to give back, she couldn’t pay for this love being offered.  She receives God’s love expressed through Ruth fully and freely. Today our God is knocking, inviting and pursing His children. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock….” (Revelation 3.20)

Just when we think our story cannot be redeemed, He is making a way, He is clearing the path for Jesus, our Redeemer, to be brought to the door of our heart. We are not too much, our sin is not too great, our despair is not out of God’s reach. Dare we question the tribulations of life without certainty of His love that has rescued us?

He has come for you. Rest in His redemption today.

Reflection

• Who do you see God to be in this story?
• Who do you see God to be in your story?
• How is God’s loyalty and love expressed to you and through you?

Resting in His Redemption

Let’s rest in the words of Jesus today from John 15.

 
⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.”  John 15.9-17

Reclaiming the Truth


“And again they wept together and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye. But Ruth clung tightly to Naomi. Look, Naomi said to her, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. You should do the same.” Ruth 1.14-15

“Then Peter began to speak: ‘I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism³⁵ but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.’” Acts 10.34-35

Redeeming the Time


Ruth is one of four women mentioned in Matthew’s recount of the lineage of Jesus. In Ruth, we find a woman who was not a Jew, a Moabite even, a race often despised by Israel, and yet she finds herself in the very genealogy of Jesus. This is no mistake. This reveals the character of our God who pursues without partiality. This pursuit of Ruth and her mother-in-law was unmerited. There was not a transaction, or a behavior, or a religious act that Ruth did to gain such pursuit from God. Ruth simply walked through the invitational doors of a pursuit of God that would redeem her family on earth and make her a participant in the greatest redemption story the world has ever known.

Just like Ruth, God’s presence in our lives is a price paid by Christ himself for the sake of His love to enter into the world. His invitation is available to all, no matter who you are or where you are. No matter our history or our sin, nothing has taken us too far out of reach of our God. No race, gender, nation or tribe stops our God from His pursuit of us, of you. The glory of the story of Christ is that He came for the nations, and He died for the nations. Crucified through Christ are all ethnocentric and racial barriers. God’s redeeming love pushes through borders, religions and tribes to rescue those He calls His very own.

Praise God for being a God of all creation who pursues all nations.

Reflection

• How have you experienced God’s pursuit?
• How have you seen God’s pursuit for His whole world?
• Can you see allowances in your story today which may be a sign of God’s pursuit for all nations?

Resting in His Redemption


Rest and receive the song of Revelation 5.



⁹ And they sang a new song, saying:


“You are worthy to take the scroll
    

and to open its seals,


because you were slain,
    

and with your blood you purchased for God
    

persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.


¹⁰ You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,    

and they will reign^[b] on the earth.”

Revelation 5.9-10