Commitment

Read – Ruth 1:7-22

Commitment is a value of the Marine Corp. They teach every marine to have honor and courage and commitment. The reason for that is mainly because you’re representing more than yourself. You’re respecting the marines who have gone before you. You’re representing those who go ahead of you and you’re representing the USA. A lot of other people get affected based on their own reputation. We see this with the police departments, one cop does something wrong, they all get a bad name. We see this among pastors, one does something wrong, now the entire church gets a bad reputation. These three values are more than words or logos that go in a marine’s handbook in Bootcamp, they are the very fabrication of every single person in the world, in some way, shape, or form. In each culture, everyone lives with these values. 

Being a single Christian is like being a marine. We’re of a group of people that are connected based on a central belief system and that belief system is the bible. In our faith, we use honor, courage, commitment to carry our own mission, of shining a light in the darkness. By taking the gospel to the ends of the world. Not only big missions like that but smaller missions like finding a spouse. We are all on a mission to find a spouse. So what can we learn today from Ruth 1, in the life of Naomi about finding a spouse?

Naomi told both her daughters-in-law to go back to their own people. She said that because she wanted to move on and she wanted them also to move on. Just let’s forget about the deaths of everyone. Let’s take 10 steps back and act like it never happened. Let’s start over. Naomi is in no position right now to stay committed to any relationship, not even to her two daughters-in-law. It seems that when bad things happen to us in life, our first reaction is the go sit in a corner and be away from everyone. We want no interaction with other people. This “leave me alone” thinking is very dangerous. We need a community around us. Communities can take shape in a group of friends, church, coworkers, and family. Community is an important factor in recovering from emotional pain. 

Key Points 

Emotions

Guys need to understand that women are very emotional creatures. God’s created them to be very expressive with their emotions. In this passage, we see Noami cry a few times while trying to get her daughter-in-law to go away. So when seeking a wife guy’s we need to understand the nature of a woman and their nature is an emotional nature. It’s weird though, being a guy when I am looking at it, women are very emotional, but when you ask what’s wrong, they say, “nothing”. Guy’s don’t be angry at how they were made. You as a man have to dig deep inside of yourself and express your emotions with her. That’s one key to bonding a relationship with a woman. (Girls, feel free to comment below on this topic, thanks!).

Commitment

It says Ruth was determined to stay with Naomi and go with her. Ruth told Naomi, “Your people will be my people, your god will be my god, where you die, I will die too.” What could drive someone to say something like that? All I could think of is love. You truly have to love someone to change your entire way of life. 

When seeking a spouse, we need to ask ourselves a few key questions… 

*Am I willing to go the next 30, 40, 50, 60, even 100 years, until my death bed to be with this person? 

• If the answer is no, then you shouldn’t be with this person. 

*Am I willing to change my location, belief system, career or anything else in order to be with this person? 

• If the answer is no, you should not even consider dating. Right here a lot of Christians like to go on missionary dates. They think they can date non-believers and somehow convince them to become a believer. Doing this is a bad idea, because either you will be the one who converts to their faith. Y’all might get married, have kids, then start to fight over what faith system to teach your kids. Your kids will most likely think religion is all a lie and they will never accept Jesus because of their parent’s broken relationship. Divorce is another very common route that leads to the pain of both lovers, and of the kids. Dating non-believers have so many bad effects on the whole relationship. 

Be sure that as you’re looking for someone, that you’re all in. If you’re not all in, that is a bad way to get into a relationship. Ruth was all in. She wasn’t going to leave Noami. She was all in on her emotional needs, she was all in on her spiritual needs, she was all in on her relational needs. 

Something interesting I wanted to point out. They arrived. During a time of pain, suffering, oppression, famine, death, they arrived. In verse 22. Naomi walked into the city called Bethlehem, which means “House of Bread”. During a time of oppression and famine, God directed Noami to not just any city with a harvest, but a city called “House of Bread”. In this same city, a baby would be born, the name of that baby was Jesus, the Bread of Life. Ruth, the one that stayed committed would become part of the Genealogy of Jesus. 

Right now, being single might be hard. It might be painful. It might not be part of your own grand plan. It wasn’t for me. I thought I would be married and have kids 5 years ago. Let me encourage you to stay committed now to your faith in God. Stay committed to God now, so later it will be even easier to stay committed to your future spouse. Teach yourself the skill of commitment. Also, remember, your singleness might not make sense right now, but maybe there is a huge purpose for it. Ruth had no idea, God was going to put her in the Genealogy of the Messiah. I don’t even think she ever knew. She died not knowing what God was doing. Think about that. Maybe your story today is a story for someone else in 1000 or 2000 years. Stay faithful, stay Committed. Seek and Know God.