But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return 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. (ESV)

I love the book of Ruth where we see this beautiful story unfold of Ruth clinging to her mother-in-law, Naomi. Naomi leaves her land during a famine. During her time away in the land of Moab, her husband dies, and her two sons, who had married foreign Moabite women, also die. Naomi is understandably bitter – she has lost her husband and sons and only has two foreign daughters–in-law. She decides to return home to Judah to her own people and tells her daughters-in-law to stay in Moab – she has nothing for them. But Ruth doesn’t take the easy way out. Ruth responds with our verse of the day, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you”(NIV). She stays with Naomi, not knowing what’s ahead and trusting not only in Naomi, but more so in Naomi’s God. If you know the rest of the story, you know that God provided for Ruth, and she ends up becoming the great grandmother of King David and part of the lineage of Jesus. All because of a faithful decision.

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This passage is personal as I recited these verses as part of my marriage vows nearly 34 years ago. As a young bride, I was committing myself to my husband, and I knew that following him meant following his Army career for a while, so I recognized that we would be going many places. I placed my trust in my husband that day, but more importantly I vowed before God that I placed my trust in Him.  

Ruth left behind her own culture and people to live among the Jews in Judah, Naomi's people. She left behind what she was accustomed to and traded it for unknowns to trust in the God she’d begun to know through Naomi.

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When we follow God, we often don’t know where He will lead. We think we have plans for our lives. But God may call us to different places, to different friendships, to different jobs, to different ways of handling situations. When we leave behind patterns of life that we’ve become comfortable with, and God challenges us to submit to His authority, it can be hard. Adjusting our language or our response to stress or how we treat others may be ways in which we leave behind the old to follow God’s ways.

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As you consider your journey in following Christ, what have you had to leave behind? For some it may be the loss of family connections when our earthly families don’t understand our faith decisions. Maybe it was addiction or patterns of sin. For others it may not be quite so drastic, but it may mean friendships or expectations. Or maybe, like me, you grew up in a Christian home and chose to follow Christ at a young age. I don’t really feel as though I left much behind to follow Jesus. But regardless of what we leave behind, whether it feels big or small, when we follow Christ we gain everything!

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As we follow Christ and gain eternal life and a relationship with him, there are still daily things that we must all choose to give up. Jesus says in Luke 9:23 that we must take up our cross daily and follow him. Picking up a cross entails taking on suffering and challenges that I wouldn’t choose. In this way, we are all faced with leaving behind comfortable lives where we are in control to surrender to a God who calls us into the unknown and perhaps into the uncomfortable. Ruth followed Naomi – leaving behind what was known to her – and God blessed her with a new family and a permanent place in the lineage of Jesus. We can be certain that in the long run, the blessing of walking in obedience to what God calls us to is worth everything we leave behind or give up.

Lord, I choose to follow you today. I want to go each day in the direction you want me to go. Help me to daily submit myself, not only when it’s convenient and comfortable, but in each moment because You are worthy. Thank you for your Word and for examples like Ruth who give me such a picture of faithfulness, strength, and grace. Amen.