Leap of Faith

Just two verses today. But I was convicted. (Haha, God's Word tends to do that, no?)

After listening to Naomi's reasoning for Ruth and Orpah to turn back and remain in Moab, Orpah and Ruth weep yet again. NIV says:

At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. "Look," said Naomi, "your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her." Ruth 1:14-15

Orpah was convinced by Naomi's list of reasons, and returned to life in Moab. She had a chance to rise above all the sin, all the dirt and vile that she had been born into, but she chose to remain in it. She chose not to trust in God's provision and instead stayed on the easy track, the track where life was predictable and she could take care of herself. She chose comfort. Essentially, what her decision was saying was this, "I don't trust that God can take care of me in a foreign land where my prospects of finding a husband are extremely low. I don't trust that He will provide when I am hungry or in need." She wasn't trusting that God was enough. She felt she needed some sort of reassurance besides what He was offering to her. And Naomi's reasoning was enough to convince her that God was not big enough to take care of her problems or rise above the odds.

God doesn't want us to live like this. Recently God has been probing my own heart in the area of trusting in Him. Financially speaking, I do not know how everything is going to work out. With the way the economy is right now, I don't know how I'm going to get a job upon graduating. I don't even know how I'm going to make it through next semester and the following summer! But God spoke to me about placing my trust in Him, and He said this, "If you run from places and situation that require you to place your trust in Me, then you will never experience My glorious and faithful provision."

If we are constantly trying to take care of things ourselves, if we don't take that step out into faith, we aren't going to see God move. Why? Because we're not letting Him! We're not giving Him the chance! When we make decisions based on narrow viewpoints (like Naomi did), we end up shying away from a wonderful chance at growth and blessings that are only found in God (like Orpah did). But if we can only take that leap of faith, step out and believe that God will provide, perhaps we could experience the kinds of miracles that Ruth did.