Devotionals

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Some people want to be manipulated to come and serve God; others think that manipulation is part of the strategy to win people for the Lord.

There are people who would still come to serve God at His (perceived) worst. This group constitutes genuine believers. They have unconditional love for God just as they have unconditional faith in Him. Unconditional faith maintains that God is faithful whether He grants our pleas or not.

The Bible tells us about a famine that broke out in Bethlehem Judah. As a result, a man called Elimelech took his family to go and sojourn in the country of Moab. He took with him his wife Naomi and his two sons: Mahlon and Chilion.

Unfortunately, within a period of about ten years, Elimelech and his two sons died. Before they died, Naomi’s sons had taken for themselves wives from Moab. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other, Ruth.

In due time, Naomi heard that the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread. She decided to return home to Judah—alone. She advised her daughters in law to return each to her mother's house. After much reasoning and pleading, Orpah kissed her mother in law goodbye and went back to her people. Ruth, however, clung unto Naomi.

Consider how Naomi presented her God:

“…the hand of the LORD is gone out against me ... Call me not Naomi [Naomi means pleasant], call me Mara [Mara means bitter]: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?” (Ruth 1:13, 20-21, parentheses, author’s clarification).

Now, what about that for a God that is about to ‘win’ a follower? He didn’t demonstrate His edge over the gods of the Moabites.
Now, that is the God that Ruth chose to believe in. Listen to her:

“… Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God (Ruth 1:16, italics: Author’s emphasis).

I Will Still Trust In Him

“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15).

“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17-18).

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (Daniel 3:16-18).
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