Spirit – Pastor Pushie
Most of us lose faith when faced with loss. But you can’t be blessed and bitter at the same time, argues Pastor Pushie Watson
Ruth 1:22 says, “So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.”
The book of Ruth tells us how these two women, Ruth and Naomi, had lost everything. Naomi had left Bethlehem many years ago. She, her husband and two sons had migrated to the land of Moab to escape famine in their land. In those days, Israelites and Moabites did inter-marry, even though the Moabites were seen as spiritually inferior and religiously unclean to the Israelites. When they arrived in Moab, Naomi’s two sons married Moabite women, one of whom was Ruth. After some time, Naomi’s husband died and she became a widow. Shortly thereafter, Naomi’s two sons also died.
Have you ever had a season of such loss that your entire life felt like it was falling apart? Not only was Naomi a foreigner and a widow, she was now also childless. When losses and pain happen one after another, it’s a devastating experience that feels like you’ll never be able to go on in life again. Suddenly you can’t comprehend why the sun still rises, the singing birds mean nothing, and life loses its colour. You shift into autopilot as you drift deeper into depression. It’s in times like this where you wonder if you will ever recover.
It is often at the place of loss that most people give up. We give up on our dreams and lose hope that life could ever be better for us. Naomi was on the brink of quitting. “Do not call me Naomi (which means pleasant), she replied. “Call me Mara” (which means bitter). “I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.”
Naomi had lost everything. It’s one thing to experience loss in your own country, amongst your own people. But when you’re living in a foreign land, trying to survive and life throws you a curveball you never saw coming, and you have to figure it out with no one at your rescue, you begin to wonder, ‘Where is God in all of this? How did I end up here? How could something like this happen to me?’
Naomi turned to her daughtersin-law and said, “Go back, each of you, to your own mother’s home.” She told them she had nothing left to give. Oh, the pain of loss; the deep, unrelenting pain of losing a loved one, let alone three. Naomi had lost everyone she ever loved dearly. In her response, Ruth said to her, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” You might have lost your home, husband, son, or family, but if you still have God, there is still hope. The Bible says that where two or more are gathered in His name, there He is in their midst. When Ruth called on the God of Israel, everything began to change. No matter what Naomi lost, she still had God.
Ruth, determined to stay with Naomi, left Moab and walked away from the familiar. She left her family, and went with Naomi back to her home in Bethlehem. I realised that in this life, we may experience many losses. People come and go, things come and go, jobs come and go, but if I have God, then nothing is impossible for me. If God is all I have, then God is all I need.
Just when it looked like it was all over for Naomi and Ruth, God put an end to the famine. They arrived in Bethlehem as the harvest was beginning. Furthermore, with Naomi’s guidance and instruction, Ruth met and married Boaz, the ‘Bible billionaire’ with whom she birthed the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. So not only did God put an end to her famine, but He restored her finances and her family. When God gets ready to bless you, nothing in your past will be able to stop you. But you can’t be blessed and bitter at the same time. You can’t be healed and still hold on to sickness. You can’t be wealthy and still think poor. No matter how difficult it is, you have to let go of the past in order to embrace the future. Someone said, “If you don’t let the past die, the future can’t live.” As you let go of the old that has died in your life, God will usher you into something beautiful and new.
I declare that you’re coming into a new season. Your season of loss is over. God is bringing you into a new land of harvest. God is turning it around for you, in the mighty name of Jesus. Don’t give up. Don’t quit. God is for you and you will make it. – Pastor P
When God gets ready to bless you, nothing in your past will be able to stop you