Blessed Surrender

Ruth 1:16 But Ruth replied, "don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go . . . your people will be my people and your God my god."

Many of us are having a hard time surrendering our rights. Most of the people I know, rants about why he/she falls into temptation, yet forgets that it is because they themselves doesn't want to let it go. Because if you really are sincere, you will show yourself that you don't like what you are doing. You don't like what you are doing is just, simply put, "not doing it."

In the life of Ruth, one thing that you will noticed is that she chose and was willing to surrender everything for her mother-in-law. (Ruth 1:16)We don't know if Ruth still has relatives in their clan or has any place to go, but after her husband died she knows that she is free to go. May be Ruth and her mother-in-law was so close now that she doesn't want to leave her all alone. Ruth's response to the situation brought her to a more deeper surrender, it is sacrifice. I think many of you will agree that, it is easy to give up a panda ballpen (its a cheap ballpen in the Philippines) than to sacrifice your life. Ruth chose to sacrifice her own freedom just to be with her mother-in-law.

Why do you think did she do that? What did it really mean for her to surrender her life?

As you read through Ruth chapter 1 and 2, you will see how God worked and blessed this Moabite woman inside the God's Will. Ruth taking all her rights and giving it to her mother-in-law was enough for her to be given a blessing from God. When she went with her mother-in-law to her husbands relatives, she was greeted with people who have accepted her into the family. Who respected her and gave her what she and her mother-in-law needed. The relatives of Naomi, (the mother-in-law), knowing what Ruth has done, accepted her and treated her as part of the family. God with all His goodness didn't just stop His blessing there because later on Ruth became part of the genealogy of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:5).

In Ruth's case, she freely surrender her rights but God used it for His glory. How about you, have you fully surrendered your life to God? Check your life if you still have hidden spots that you may bring into God's light. As Christ sacrificed His whole life for the glory of God, doesn't God also ask you to do that?

Surrender to God everything, your thoughts, your plans, your whole life. As Jesus said in Matthew 22:21 "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God was is God's."

So think again, have you really surrendered everything to God?

Pray this prayer: Heavenly Father, help me live a surrendered life, always with hands up to you. Make me understand that I don't own anything in this life I am living. And make me live a life of full surrender, for your glory, honor, and praise. Amen.