Are You Willing To Wait at the Master's Feet?

I don't know about you but I think they sure had some weird ways of saying and doing things back in the Old Testament.  Check this out.

Ruth 3:1-4(NKJV)

1Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, shall I not seek security for you, that it may be well with you? 

2Now Boaz, whose young women you were with, is he not our relative? In fact, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. 

3Therefore wash yourself and anoint yourself, put on your best garment and go down to the threshing floor; but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. 

4Then it shall be, when he lies down, that you shall notice the place where he lies; and you shall go in, uncover his feet, and lie down; and he will tell you what you should do.”

Huh?  LOL.  It is just odd phrasing for me.  But I believe there is a lesson that we can learn from this.  As you can see, this is from the Book of Ruth.  On Monday you may recall I wrote For Where You Go, I Will Go!.  In that post I wrote the following:

"Here is a question.  As a follower of Christ, do you have that same loyalty and faith?  Are you willing to follow Jesus ANYWHERE He leads you?  Are you willing to leave all that you know for Him?"

I was comparing the loyalty and faith that Ruth had to her mother in law Naomi to the loyalty and faith that we should have to Jesus.  Well today I would like to draw another example from their relationship.

As many of you know, one of the goals of my blog is to give you some of the real world, here and now benefits of being a Christian.  To answer that question "of what practical use is it to be a Christian today?".  I have written many times about how cool it is to watch God work in our lives.  How He can guide us and provide so many blessing in our lives.

But how many have noticed that it doesn't always happen in the time frame we would like?  And what is the first explanation we jump to when it doesn't happen in our time frame?  What did we do wrong?  How did we sin?  What did we do to offend God so that He isn't listening to us any long? 

And while at some point I am sure that those are valid questions to ask, why is that the first place we go?  Think about it.  What is Satan's easiest line of attack?  Guilt.  Isn't it amazing where our mind goes first?

I'd like to offer a different approach based on Naomi's instructions to Ruth. 

Ruth 3:4(NKJV)

4Then it shall be, when he lies down, that you shall notice the place where he lies; and you shall go in, uncover his feet, and lie down; and he will tell you what you should do.”

Ruth 3:12-13(NKJV)

12Now it is true that I am a close relative; however, there is a relative closer than I. 

13Stay this night, and in the morning it shall be that if he will perform the duty of a close relative for you—good; let him do it. But if he does not want to perform the duty for you, then I will perform the duty for you, as the Lord lives! Lie down until morning.”

Ruth 3:18(NKJV)

18Then she said, “Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out; for the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day.”

 OK, let me tie this all together and wrap up.  In the story above Ruth is told to uncover Boaz's feet, and then wait and Boaz would tell her what to do.  Then Boaz tells her He will help her but there are a couple of other things that have to be put in place first.  Then Naomi tells Ruth to just chill and be patient, Boaz is on the matter and he WILL take care of it.

So the next time things aren't happening as quickly as you may want, just think of the story of Ruth.  Just sit patiently at Jesus' feet.  He is on it!  Don't assume you've done something wrong.  Maybe just as Boaz, Jesus has some other things that He needs to put into place before you can proceed.  Just chill, continue to thank Jesus for being on the case and working things out.  He WILL concluded the matter, you can count on it!