The Lord Pays Attention

“She and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to His people’s need by providing them food.” Ruth 1:6

We saw that this time period was a time of oppression and famine. Can we really blame Naomi for looking around and seeing her troubles in life? Her husband and both her sons have died and at the worst time possible, during a time when having men were needed in the household. In those days men were the breadwinners. Men took care of the woman. 

It’s easy to read history like the Book of Ruth and assume that it is just like the 21st century, a woman can earn just as much as a man, but it wasn’t like that. The way that society operated in old history was very much different than modern history. It really wasn’t until the 1940s through 1950s, while WW1 & WW2 were happening that women started working male-type jobs, because of the war, women were forced to learn and take male-type jobs to keep the society and economy running. Now we find ourselves in a world that women don’t care about marriage and the divorce rate is high. Women now understand or at least have this train of thought that they don’t need men anymore. This leads to sex outside of marriage because they know guys want sex and woman can trade marriage with the pig for a little hotdog. It’s the sad untold truth. The support a man once offered is no longer there. Men must now offer a different type of support and I believe that in the 21st century the best support we men can offer women is not money, but emotional support, men must learn to use their emotions to get to the heart of the woman they want, because sexual and financial support is no longer support, but if men learn to use their hearts and be authentic with their wives or girlfriends, we could see a major flip in the divorce rates and decrease in the number of singles worldwide.  

While we are walking through the season of singleness, loneliness, depression, and other things like the death of loved ones, what can we learn from Naomi’s life to help us push forward in our personal life? What is the greater good in all the trouble that life might bring? 

The Lord Pays Attention 

In this time of famine and oppression in Naomi’s time, the Lord still provided for his people. It says that back in Naomi’s homeland, the Lord started providing her people with food. Ruth 1:22 says it was the beginning of the barley harvest. So God provides for his people in these famine seasons of life. When we look at our season of singleness, how has God provided for you during this season? The answer depends on the person, it could be from teaching you lessons, giving you friends, giving you a God size mission. God will fill you in this season, but first, God will empty you. Just look for his hand when everything you have is taken from you and when everything you don’t have is given to you. There was a guy named job that went through a painful season of his life where everything was taken from him, except a nagging wife, his response to God and everyone around him was, Job 1:20-22 “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” We should have this same response Job had towards the painful season that this broken world brought on his life.

When I was 20 years old, I went through a breakup from a 4-year-old relationship. God provided, by giving me a manager job, which did take my mind off the breakup and put my mind on all the stress a management position brings. He also brought a lot of financial pain (not blessing) in my life, really took my mind off the breakup and put it on money and trying to become financially free. Both these things pushed me to join the US Marines and it all made me into a better person and I think I’m more of a God-fearing man today than I was when I was 20, because of the manager job, money skills, and becoming a Marine. Those things would have never happened if the pain never entered my life. So in these times of famine, look around, how has God provided? I find that more often than not, God seems to bring painful events into our lives to move us forward in life and draw us closer to him. A few months ago I watched my cousin get buried. There is never a day that goes by that I don’t think about my personal death and look at my own body and just have this reminder that my time is coming one day and I ask myself that if today is the day, did I fulfill the God Size Mission on my life? This one question keeps me up at night. It keeps me going and writing Faith-Based books and pursuing ministry efforts that will last even after my death, until the 2nd coming of Jesus.

Do you think that God is paying attention to you today? While we are searching for Love and trying to make sense of our singleness, how about we start to look around at all the ways God has provided for us during our singleness. How about we also remember how much love God has for us while we are in this season of doubt. God has not forgotten about you. He will remember you at the right time. God is never late. God is never early either, but he is right on time.