Choosing God over the world will seem like death. But choose God anyway.

That is the lesson of Ruth in the Old Testament. Ruth had a choice between choosing God and choosing her comfort. When her jewish husband died, she was left with her mother-in-law. But the mother-in-law wanted to go back to her country Israel. Ruth was a Moabite. And she was living among her people. And she was young enough to remarry one of her people and raise a family like everyone else. For her to stick with her mother-in-law, that would mean that she would have to go to a foreign land and god only knows how she’s going to make a living! The only person she knows there is her mother-in-law, whose son – her husband – has died. She would be discriminated against and treated like a foreigner in a very racist society. Why on earth would she choose to go with her mother-in-law?

But Ruth makes a critical decision. The most critical decision anyone can make. She chooses the God of the Bible over her own god that she was familiar with and she grew up in. This was no easy matter in her culture. Choosing the God of the Bible literally meant for her to leave her own land, her people, her god, her relatives, and adopt what is unfamiliar and foreign.

The cost was great. But the reward was incalculable. She became the great grandmother of king David and more importantly got included in the lineage of Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords!

It’s never foolish to invest in God. You get out so much more than you put in! You sow one life, you reap a million and more! (eternal life)

Choose God. Every time!

PH