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Daily Affirmations - Day 2 - The Call of Home: The Tie That Binds

Writer's picture: Alisa B.Alisa B.

Day 2: The tie that binds


But Ruth replied [to Naomi], “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" (Ruth 1:16).


Our Father, the prophet Jeremiah prayed: "To You the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, “Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good" (Jeremiah 16:19).


Lord, You are a God of personal encounter—personal relationship. You touch our lives individually, and You bless and grow us together in community. Your Spirit is the tie that binds us together as a people of God—not in exclusivity, because You open Your doors of grace to whosoever believes and accepts the love You offer (John 3:16).


Anyone who has had an encounter with You is left in no doubt that You are God. They understand the truth in the psalmist's declaration that all the gods of the nations are idols... (Psalm 96:5).


Naomi's daughter-in-law, Ruth understood this. She had married into a family that served the Living God. And now that Naomi was planning to return to her home in Bethlehem after much tragedy and loss, Ruth was choosing to go with her. She was following the call to a new home with Your people, instead of going back to the gods of her nation. She was choosing to sever the ties of the past, and to bond with the people of God.


Boaz, who in Your great plan and providence was to become her new husband, summed up her decision:


“I’ve been told...how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge” (Ruth 2:11-12).

For us, too, Lord, the call to home is the call to place You first. The Lord Jesus gave us the cost of discipleship in no uncertain terms, “Anyone who wants to be My follower must love Me far more than he does his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, or sisters—yes, more than his own life—otherwise he cannot be My disciple"


To our human ears, that sounds difficult. But Jesus Himself was obedient to the priorities of the Father. In spite of His love and concern for His mother and His earthly family, He declared that it was His disciples who were His "mother and brothers." He demonstrated allegiance to the will of the Father—to the collective mission and work of the household of God (Matthew 12:49-50).


Father, help us, like the Lord Jesus, to embrace Your priorities for our lives—Your will, Your mission, Your purpose. Help us like Ruth, to follow the call to home—leaving behind our gods and our idols, that do us no good.


Help us to join hearts and hands with Your people, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3). So that the world may know. So that Your kingdom will come, and Your will be done.



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