Naomi and Ruth • Life Should Not Be Lived Alone

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When life gets hard, do you tend to isolate yourself? Do you shun community because you are afraid of getting hurt again? Are you trying to do life alone? When we isolate ourselves from others, that is when our fear level escalates. Loneliness breeds fear. In the last post, you learned from Deborah and Jael how to face trouble with courage and peace. This is blog #7 in the “Fear to Faith” series. In this post, we will learn one of my favorite lessons from the story of Naomi and Ruth—life should not be lived alone.

Listen to this blog in a similar podcast from the Everyday Women, Ever-Faithful God Bible Study.

Learning from the Book of Ruth

The book of Ruth is often the topic of sermons and women’s Bible Studies. Most often, the focus is on the concept of the kinsman redeemer role of Boaz, which is a foreshadowing of what Christ did for us. Sometimes, it is showing how a pagan like Ruth chooses faith in the God of the Bible and becomes the GGG Grandmother of King David and eventually Jesus. In women’s ministry, the story of Naomi and Ruth is often used to illustrate the Titus 2 instruction for the older women to mentor the younger women in a local church. I have used the book of Ruth to illustrate God’s goodness. We see that God is good all the time: even in the tough times; in different ways to each of us, and in what He allows or does not allow into our lives. We see all those illustrated in the story of Ruth. In this post, we will learn one of my favorite lessons from the story of Naomi and Ruth—life should not be lived alone.

Fear Multiplies When We Are Alone

Fear is a normal human emotion designed by God to alert us to danger so that we will take action against it.

Life seems much harder when we are alone. Fear multiplies when we are alone. When we are facing any situation that is tough or is frightening, God does not intend for us to face it alone.

That is one of the reasons why the Holy Spirit places you in the Body of Christ from the very moment you say yes to Jesus. You are to be connected to other believers. You have sisters in the Body of Christ. There are women who can be your friends in the Body of Christ. It is essential that you connect yourself to other believers.

In Ruth 1, you see that a grieving Naomi started to pull away from the people she knew the best.

Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. (Ruth 1:8)

Naomi was isolating herself. That only magnified her grief. Praise God that he had placed Ruth there, and Ruth was not going to let Naomi be by herself.

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 even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. (Ruth 1:16-18)

Why and How Women Isolate Themselves

Through the years, I have seen women isolate themselves from others when they are experiencing trouble. Sometimes grief. Sometimes when going through marital strife. Sometimes after a move to a different location where they do not know anyone.

Or women give up on the church community and do not feel like they need to be part of a local church. The bad behavior of Christian leaders that hits the news may be their excuse. I had a cousin who felt that way. Or they may have been wounded by a church member and walk away so as not to be wounded again. Has that happened to you?

Why You Should Not Isolate Yourself

Mutual encouragement

If that is your experience, please do not try to do life alone. Think about what happens when you burn wood in a fireplace or fire pit. You can easily see that logs burn more brightly when they are placed together. But separate one log from the rest, and pretty soon it will grow cold. The same is true about us. Christians need each other for warmth and encouragement.

Paul wrote this in his letter to the Romans…

I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. (Romans 1:11-12)

We get mutual encouragement from one another as we are together. Everyone needs that.

Protection from false teaching

And a local church community with good biblical teaching can keep you safe from false teaching. Pastors and teachers who love Jesus will help you grow in your Christian life as they feed you the spiritual food of the Bible and help you to know God better.

Learning how to love others

Being part of a church family also helps you learn how to love others and their differences. Jesus knows the difficulty we all have at times with one another. He gets it. Our relationship with Him does not prevent us from having misunderstandings or differences of opinion. Sometimes these relational challenges tempt us to harbor grudges against someone with whom we differ. Or they tempt us to isolate ourselves from the whole community. Neither of these is healthy for you. Isolation will lead to stunted spiritual growth and a lack of joy in your life.

Bear one another’s burdens

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)

We are to bear one another’s burdens. We do that by being together. Naomi and Ruth were able to bear each another’s burdens.

And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.” Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” … Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.” So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law. (Ruth 2:1-2, 22-23)

Ruth worked for food. Naomi gave wise counsel about where and how to do that. They were doing life together.

Can you imagine the continued heartache Naomi would have experienced if she took that long journey back to Bethlehem alone? Her fear level was already high. It would have probably soared to almost suffocating. That is what isolation does.

Alone? Find Community

Are you trying to do life alone? Admit your God-given need for community. Take action. Find a local church that presents Jesus Christ as the Son of God and faith in Him alone as the only way to be saved and have a relationship with God. Find a church that honors the Bible as God’s Word, completely true, and the guidebook for life and decision-making. Find a church that encourages you to personally follow Jesus as His disciple and grow stronger in your faith. Then, join a small group within that community and get connected. Share your life with others. Let them encourage you and bear your burdens while you do the same for them. Praise God together as you see Him work in your lives.

That happened for Ruth and Naomi, too.

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife … she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.” Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. (Ruth 4:13-17)

Ruth and Naomi became connected in a new family. They shared the joy of Ruth’s marriage and the birth of Obed. Other women living near them rejoiced as well. Neither of them were alone.

Connected? Come Alongside the Lonely One

But many of you reading this are already well-connected. Yay! Praise God for that joy. So here is what I ask you to do: Pay attention and come alongside someone who may be isolated and lonely, trying to face life on her own.

Pay attention just means to listen to how she describes herself or her life. Make mental note to find out more about her. Then, come alongside her. Invite her to join you for something during the next week—early before work, during the day, after supper. It does not matter. Just find a time that works and do it. Share a little of your stories when you get together. Find out where she is in her walk of faith. Connect her with others who might have similar interests or needs. Bring the community together around her. Confirm to her that when any of us are facing a situation that is tough or is frightening, God does not intend for us to face it alone. Be a light-bearer for God to the world around you. Do not let anyone in your sphere of influence face life alone, even you. That is a huge part of our walk from fear to faith.

God loved Ruth and Naomi. He knew what was going on in their lives. Naomi voiced her grief over the death of her husband and sons but never stopped trusting Him to do something about her situation. Ruth’s relationship with God started the same way most relationships with Him do. She came to know and value someone who knew Him well. That someone was Naomi. These women were not only God’s provision to each other but also a way for Him to make Himself known through their lives. You may face grief and seemingly overwhelming challenges in your own life. But just like Naomi and Ruth, you can count on these truths…

God loves you.
He knows what is going on in your life.
He can do something about it.
You can trust His goodness in whatever He chooses to do!

That is how you walk from fear to faith.

In the next post, we will see from Hannah’s life what it means to believe that you are dearly loved.

Let Jesus satisfy your heart with His faithfulness, so you will choose to trust Him with every fear.

All of the above information is covered in the Everyday Women, Ever-Faithful God Bible Study or the shorterThe Walk from Fear to Faith Bible Study.

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