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The Work of My Hands Lord


Ruth 1:16-17: 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.  Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.  May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”  When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

DECIDE – At all costs, to follow God, the one and only true God.  DECIDE that nothing else makes sense other than that.  I get a lot of push back from work and I have many concerns about my future there and my commitment.   Before I got the job, I said,  “I’m going to do 5 years at my next job,” and now I’m looking to get out within one year.  My thoughts: I’m trying to start my business or really get something else going because I cannot see myself there long term.



As you know, I’ve had one foot in and one foot out, and that’s why I haven’t achieved any real success anywhere.  The questions and ups and downs I go through are because I haven’t yet DECIDED with the finiteness of a decision like Ruth’s.  She wasn’t wondering, Should I go?  Is it the right decision?  No.  She made the decision and backed it with a strong oath.  She burned the bridge behind her to the point of no return.  She may have done it for herself, maybe for Naomi.   Perhaps it was to stop Naomi from nagging her about it.  Regardless of the reason, now they both knew how serious she was.  Talk about a commitment!  Naomi was looking in the natural at the situation while Ruth looked at the spiritual.  Ruth was determined to live the higher life; to get closer to the Blesser and not the blessing; to stay the course.



Others will turn away and go back.  Once you have made up your mind, once you have completely decided, whatever “it” is – the enemy will stop urging you.  People will stop urging you.  You will become immovable, sturdy and steady.  We must burn the bridge of return.  Why?  It is not good to waver in your decision.  Wavering allows the enemy to toss you back and forth.  It leaves a crack for the enemy to get in.  James 1:6b says, “Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.  Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” 

Declaration:  Here I am and Here I Stand

“A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work.  This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?”  It really doesn’t matter what the business venture or plan is, who can find enjoyment in anything without the hand of God?  And God has me here at this job.  If I want to truly move forward I have to burn the bridge of return.  Only after that will others stop urging me.  Only then will I fully embrace where I am and grow.  And DECIDE to grow where I am. 



I’m not sure what decision lies before you or what you may be going back and forth on, but let me encourage you.  If there is a clear right or wrong decision, then make the right decision.  If your decision is more about gray areas in life, pursuits and preferences, then make a decision.  Then see that decision through to the end.  Because a person who can’t make up their mind, gets nothing. 

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