Loyalty To God

Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. (Ruth 1:17-18)

As you read the story of Ruth, you will see that by far, the most important thing that Ruth says is the most important part to loyalty that one will ever have, which is the loyalty she expressed to God. “... Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Here is a young woman who has everything going against her and every reason to reject God, and yet she says, “Your God will be my God.”

Ruth’s life had been radically changed by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. She had turned away from every other false god she had ever known and put everything on the line to worship the one true God. It is one of the most courageous confessions of faith you will ever find in the entire Bible. When you read the rest of the story you will see that God honored her loyalty.

When you go to the genealogy of Jesus, there are four women that are mentioned in the family tree: Tamar - guilty of incest, Rahab – a prostitute, Bathsheba - an adulteress and a Moabite named Ruth. Because of her loyalty, God used her not to bear a son, but to change the history of the world. Our God is a loyal God. Our God will never leave us or forsake us. May we take comfort in His loyalty to us, and may we strive to always be loyal to Him. For when we do, we can have confident expectation that God will work in amazing ways through our choice to be loyal and faithful to Him.

Dear Lord, thank you for your never-ending loyalty to me. Thank you that I can always count on you to be with me and to be for me. I pray that I would be just as loyal to you as Ruth was, and that I would get excited as I look for all that you are going to do in and through my life as I surrender it to you. In Jesus’ name, amen.