Ruth 1:16 (NIV) But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”

A man named Elimelek set out from Bethlehem in Judah with his wife Naomi and their two sons to move to Moab because there was a famine in the land. They settled there and both of their sons married Moabite women. After ten years, Elimelek died and a little while later, both of his sons died as well, leaving Naomi alone with her two widowed daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth. When Naomi heard that there was no longer a famine in Judah, she set out to return to Bethlehem with her two daughters-in-law. After going a short distance, she had a change of mind and counseled them to go back because she had nothing to offer them. Orpah cried but made the decision to go back to Moab. But Ruth could not be persuaded to leave Naomi and she uttered the words that are found in the verse above. The most important and significant part of what she said was “and your God will be my God.” Those words that showed the attitude of her heart not only caused her to prosper in the land of Judah, but she also married into the line that was the one that God had selected as the lineage for our Lord and Savior, Jesus. Ruth turned out to be King David's great grandmother.

There is a big difference with knowing God as God, knowing and recognizing someone else's God as God, and knowing God as your God. When you know God as your God, making Him the object of your allegiance and affection, there is no limit to what He can do in your life and through your life. The Bible doesn’t tell us how Ruth came to that decision, but perhaps she watched and studied as her mother-in-law, Naomi, reverenced and trusted in her God. Perhaps she longed for a relationship with Him as she saw that Naomi had, which goes to show how important it is how we represent the Lord to those around us.

Knowing God as your God is the very essence of life. He not only is the origin of everything that lives and breathes, but He is life itself (John 14:6). When you know God as your God, you then have life in you. Before that, you are merely existing. Ruth’s life was forever changed and it was all because of her decision to submit herself to our loving Heavenly Father. Make sure that God is not just God to you, but that He is your God. Your life will have meaning and purpose and you will go through this journey on earth in the most blessed way possible!

Pastor Joey Vazquez