Saturday Sacrifice: God is BIGGER than your problem

Chris ended his post with a personal trial that God brought him through last year.

“2012 every day I faced a transportation issue, will it be a 7 to minute ride to and from work? Or an hour walks to and from work? These questions echoed in my head for first 3 months constantly, my days were focused on these questions. God intervened giving me revelation that as those questions consumed my mind and day, that essentially I was exalting my problem. I made my issue greater than God. After, this revelation I made the decision to make God bigger for the rest of year, refusing to allow these questions to dominate my mind or upset me.”

In  the book of Ruth we see two women, a mother and a daughter-in-law, who have both lost their husbands. So, due to their circumstances they travel back to the mother’s homeland of Bethlehem. Even though they are together and have the love and support of each other, and the Almighty God before them, Naomi doubts God.

She says, ²⁰ “Don’t call me Naomi,^[b]” she told them. “Call me Mara,^[c] because the Almighty^[d] has made my life very bitter. ²¹ …Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted^[e] me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

I understand Naomi lost her husband and her two sons, however, that doesn’t give u reason to say the “Almighty has brought misfortune upon me” or that the “Lord has afflicted me”. It almost like Naomi was making her problem bigger the God. To me Naomi feels like without her husband and sons her life is empty and meaningless. She even says, ²¹ I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.   

Based off of Naomi’s reaction I am going to assume since she’s not here today that she felt God left her and her daughter-in-law.

However, Ruth reminded Naomi in her actions that she and her mother-in-law still continued to walk in the favor of God. ² And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”

So, obviously Ruth was conscious of God’s favor in her life, and so exalted God above her problem.

When you are conscoious of God’s favor in your life, you are exalting God above your problem.

Like Chris said, I made the decision to make God bigger for the rest of year, refusing to allow these questions to dominate my mind or upset me.

And Ruth did the same, and God favored and blessed her.

⁸ So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. ⁹ Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”

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.”

¹³ “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”

Stay in God’s Peace, not in pieces =)

Saturday Sacrifice: Hannah