The Blessing of Guidance

John W. Fowler

Ruth 1:1-18

November 16, 2003

This morning I want to share with you about guidance. When I was preparing these messages, I came upon the story of Ruth, and Ruth has always been a story that especially inspires me, but particularly in the way that God guided Ruth in the worst of times and in turbulent times. I want to share with you from Chapter 1 of Ruth:

I want you to think for a few moments about guidance. How well do you receive God’s guidance. I don’t always follow directions well and sometimes I get lost. I remember when I lived in the mountains, on more than one occasion coming back from Asheville, I would miss the exit around Waynesville and I would start seeing the sign to Tennessee, and then that would always perk me up. I would say, “Well it’s a nice state, but is isn’t where I wanted to go.” I was wanting to head back to the other part of the mountains, and so I would have to get off on an exit and turn around because I was wandering. You don’t want to do that in life. You don’t want to wander spiritually. You’d rather be clear about God’s guidance for your life, and in Ruth we find some lessons for those.

Wendy Wright is one of the authors of Companions in Christ, which is a great spiritual guidance workbook put out by The Upper Room. In the section about discerning God’s will she talks about years ago when she was young and a grad student, she was leading a Spiritual Life Retreat for women entitled “Women of Wisdom,” and she asked the leader, leading these women who didn’t know as much as she did — at least in the Bible and theology — that she thought she was doing pretty well in mapping out how to know God’s will.

During the break, one of the older ladies came over to her and kinda leaned into her and said, “You know, I’ve been asking that question: — How do I know God’s will? — all my life and I had a hard time finding a really good answer, for that — just a real simple answer; but one of the things I have learned: When someone tells me that they know God’s will, five years out, ten years out…, and they really have all the details filled in, I am kinda suspicious of that.”

When I hear someone though, talk hesitantly about taking the next step into the unknown future, trusting God, I have a tendency to listen to that more, and oftentimes, doing God’s will and receiving his guidance is very much a struggle there; it’s an act of faith and it is that act of faith that helps us to grow and know our Lord better.

Chuck Swindoll, in his book called The Mystery of God’s Will, has the same sentiment and often times we think that when we are receiving God’s guidance it is going to come smooth and easy, but often times it is the, really, waiting upon the Lord that helps to grow and not only do we receive the directions and guidance, but we get to know the Guide much better.

There are three lessons I want to share with you that I see from the book of Ruth about following God’s guidance. First of all, it is very evident Ruth was very determined to follow God’s guidance. Ruth has lost her husband, and she is very determined to follow Naomi’s God. What is the background of this chapter when Naomi and Elimelech had moved to Moab and there was a famine, and that was fine, and there was food in Moab and they had gone to a neighboring country. Their boys grew up and married Moabite women, but then Elimelech died. Then about ten years later though, the two sons died. So all of a sudden, you have three widows. Naomi, as is not unusual, when there is the death of a loved one, all she could see is this empty; she is bitter. In fact, when she went back home, she said don’t call me Naomi, call me Mara, which means bitter. She was just very angry and upset at what had happened.

The normal thing for a young woman to do in this case was to go back to the mother’s home, and the prospects of having another husband would be far better, but Ruth was different. Ruth apparently has been impressed upon by the Lord that you are not to depart from your husband’s mother. You are to go back with her. She needs someone to take care of her, to be with her, to be a companion. And so in verse sixteen that is why you hear this commitment,

It is an act of commitment. “I am not overly concerned with another husband at this time. God has impressed upon me, I need to be with you and with your God.”

Ruth is determined to follow God’s guidance and so Naomi realizes that and so she goes back with her, back to Bethlehem.

Today, first and foremost, if we want to receive God’s guidance, we need to be determined; we need to really want it. I mean, you have given guidance to people, haven’t you? And you can tell if they have brushed you off. They didn’t want to hear what you had to say. And you have done it as well. People have told you things and you have said, “Well, I don’t know about; I’ll just go my own way.”

Anne Graham Lotz tells us four of the ways that we receive God’s guidance, in an article she wrote, “Seeking God’s Guidance.” And she compares it to an airplane coming in on the runway in the dark, talking about the four runway lights. The first one is that of the confirmation of God’s word, that God has given us his word to receive guidance. Paul, when he wrote to Timothy, said that all scripture is inspired by God, is profitable for teaching, or reproof, or correction, for training in righteousness that the man of God, the woman of God, will be complete and equipped for every good work. That is why it is so important to read the scriptures, individually in Sunday School or Bible Studies, but we receive God’s guidance thru his word.

And then we also receive it through an inner conviction, that is, we have a peace as we pray, that this is what God wants us to do. You have a problem, you are praying about, and you may do what I do: you give God four or five good options; you help him out. But then, oftentimes, He may surprise you and say, “That’s all well and good, John, but I can handle this; I have a better option. We pray and we receive an inner prompting – guidance of the Holy Spirit that this is the way to go.

Then third, practical circumstances: One of those doors that are opening; one of those doors that are closing.

And then fourth, the counsel of Godly and mature Christians friends. That is why you can receive God’s guidance individually, but, especially, we need the fellowship. We need to worship together. We need to have Christian friendship. And we especially those that know the Lord even better than we do and can counsel us in the right path to take.

First lesson from Ruth is she is determined to follow God’s guidance. Are you determined? Do you really want Him to guide you? Or do you just wait until there is a big deal or crisis. We especially learn to follow Him in small things, and then when big decisions come we are used to following Him.

A second lesson I see here is that Ruth was obedient to the guidance that she had received. That is that she didn’t have the big picture at this point. She didn’t have five or ten years out planned, but she knew that God had called her to go back and be with Naomi, and also at this point that she needed to provide for Naomi. And so, the only job she could do was gleaning in the fields, and so she went to work. In chapter two, we find she is working hard, and she meets Boaz. Boaz is an affluent businessman, who they find out that is also a near relative and that he can become a kinsman redeemer, which I’ll share with you in a minute what that means. Boaz is good to her. Her reputation has preceded her that this Elimelech’s daughter-in-law. This is Naomi’s daughter-in-law. She has come back from Moab. She didn’t go back to her own home; she is taking care of her mother-in-law; she is working hard. And they were impressed with that, so he showed favor to her. She was able to glean with his servant girls. He gave her a lot to take back home. And it is obvious as she is obedient to what God called her to do, God is blessing that. That is still the case today, when we obey God, when we trust and obey, God blesses obedience.

Why don’t we obey though? Well sometimes, we just don’t want God messing with us. We don’t want Him telling us what to do. One of my favorite stories in the Bible is Balaam’s donkey or Balaam’s ass or Balaam’s jackass, whichever you want to call him. But Balaam is a prophet and Balaam is determined to go to a certain place, a certain town to prophesy and to preach, but he really doesn’t need to be preaching. And there is this great angel there at this narrow passageway in the cliff. Well, Balaam can’t see him, but his donkey can. So his donkey keeps pushing on him to keep him not to go through there, because he is afraid of the angel. An he starts beating his donkey because he’s upset. He doesn’t understand what is going on and so God (I guess it’s like Mr. Ed, the horse) lets Balaam’s donkey start talking to him. He says why do you keep beating me? And then the funniest part I like about it is that, you know, Balaam starts talking to his donkey like this is just normal, you know. If I had an animal start talking back to me you would think that you might notice that, but anyway, God works through the donkey to tell him that, “You are going in the wrong direction.”

It saved him then but then Balaam was still determined to go in the path that he wanted. Oftentimes we just don’t receive God’s guidance because we are determined to do what we want to do. We don’t want to hear what God has to say.

Another reason is worry and fear. We just have a hard time trusting God. I think when Jesus was walking on the water and coming to the boat that Peter was, “Lord if it’s you, I’ll come on the water.”

“Well come on.”

So Peter gets out of the boat and he walks toward his Lord. Then he starts looking around and “You know, this is water and there is wind blowing.”

He begins to sink. And he says, “Lord help me.” And he reaches out his hand and the Lord does help him. He says, “Why did you doubt? Only believe.”

But you know of all those disciples, Peter is the only one who got his feet wet. He is the only one who got out and walked on the water. But sometimes we are just really afraid to take those risks the God really does want us to take. We would rather have a safe, well-planned, conservative life instead of an adventure in faith. And then sometimes we just don’t receive His guidance because (tape change)

...And the whole basis of abundant living has very little to do with a particular occupation, or whether you are employed or not employed, or your height or your age. It has everything to do though with knowing that your Father in Heaven is like a good shepherd who loves you. And that is the basis of it and He does. Ruth was obedient to the guidance she had received. She was blessed because of that, and we will be as well.

But the third lesson, especially, I want to share with you is that Ruth received Godly counsel in seeking God’s guidance. That is what we call mentoring. Naomi, in chapter 3, is guiding Ruth. She says,

One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for? 2Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. (She’s playing matchmaker.)3Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. 4When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do."

It seems an odd way to let a man know that you are interested in a marriage proposal, but that was their custom. And so that is what she did. She went (and I guess, you know, it has to be in the evening because she can’t really go up to him during the day; that wouldn’t be proper, but it is proper for her to lay at his feet while he is sleeping) and when he wakes up, there she is. What he tells her is that he is not the nearest kinsman redeemer; there is another relative who would have to do that. That was the custom that, if you were a relative who was widowed, you redeem the land; you redeem the marriage partner. Boaz let Ruth know that he would do that if the other one that was nearest wouldn’t. I don’t know if that would have occurred to Ruth, but Naomi guided her in that. It is very obvious that Ruth is being blessed, because she has Naomi, who is mature in the faith, to guide her.

You see that especially in the Bible. I think of Samuel as a young boy seeking to hear God’s call, and he doesn’t understand the call of God, and finally Eli tells him to go lie back down and say, “Speak, Lord for your servant is listening.” Eli was a Godly man and he knew what Samuel needed to do.

I think of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts, chapter eight who was reading the book of Isaiah, which is not the easiest book to understand, when he is reading about this Suffering Servant, this Messiah who was slain, and Phillip was guided by the Holy Spirit to go up and ask, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

“Well no, I need someone to help me.”

“Well I just happen to know about this Servant that you are talking about,” and he goes up and explains to him about Jesus being the Messiah. He introduces this Ethiopian to Christ.

Think of those people who have helped guide you in the faith. And especially if you have known Christ for twenty years or more, there definitely should be people that God is using you to help teach the faith to. But not just individually, but we especially do it in groups as well. The Quakers for years have had a meeting for clearness, where they pray, and they fast, and they worship, to help people especially when there is a big decision to be made in seeking God’s will for their lives. John Wesley felt it was so important to get believers into small groups, and he had a class meeting were they would meet together and give an accounting of their spirituality and encourage one another, support one another, but discern God’s will together.

Ruth received Godly counsel as she was seeking God’s guidance. What were the results of God’s guidance in Ruth’s life? Well, pretty good. It gets a lot better. They have a ceremony, apparently they have a ceremony where they took off the sandal and hand it. That was kind of like their notary and it does look like, when they have this ceremony, that the nearest kinsman is interested in the land, but then when he finds out there is another woman with it, he realizes that this is going to mess up his inheritance, and so he tells Boaz that he can redeem her. And Boaz is ready to redeem her. So they get married, and then a child is born, and here, Naomi is a new grandma, and she is just singing a different song.

Naomi is a new grandmother, and she is happy about it. Her life has changed. This child, Obed, becomes the father of Jesse who was the father of David. This is the direct genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the four women in that genealogy. It is a happy ending, especially of one woman — two women really — but one that I focused on, that in the worst of times, she really sought for God’s guidance. She was determined. She was not going to give up and she wasn’t going to do what everyone did. She was determined to follow God’s path for her. She obeyed it as much as she knew and then she sought the counsel of Godly people like Naomi in her life.

What were the results? A blessed life. A blessed life. Our Lord greatly desires to guide us in His will. I know when I was getting ready to make a decision about what I would do with my life, vocationally, and I remember being very confused six months after I rededicated my life to Christ years ago, I guess about 1974, I was really struggling. Well, I finally settled on a business major but that is about as much as I knew.

And I remember visiting with my uncle one day. I was helping him move; he was a retired Methodist minister, going to move to High Point with his wife, and he said, “Well, John, I hear you have changed your major.”

And I said, “Yeah, I’m going to be a business major.”

He said, “Well, you know, there are a lot of Fowlers who are business men; you can follow in your dad’s footsteps, and your brother, and be a good businessman and work in the community. But, John, I think you would make a good Methodist preacher.”

And just a few weeks before that, that thought had first occurred to me. I can promise you, growing up, I had never really thought this: “Yes, I cannot wait ‘til I grow up. I can be in a pulpit one day.”

I just didn’t think that way at all. And I thought of a lot of other things, but not this. So when he said that, it was like, how did he know that. It was like he had a radar or something. What I appreciate so much, not only that day, but that summer, was, he spent time talking to me, listening to me especially. And you could tell, he was not pushing being a Methodist preacher. What he really wanted was for his nephew to hear God’s call and guidance very clearly.

But still the next year, what I wanted most of all was to move to Atlanta. I don’t know why, but growing up in Charlotte, it seemed like Atlanta was the big city, and that’s really what I wanted to do. I interviewed with three companies, and believe it or not, they didn’t want me. And so, every door seemed to shut, going to Atlanta. The one that opened up was to go to Atlanta to sell vacuum cleaners, and I can tell you, I didn’t grow up saying, “Yes, I want to sell vacuum cleaners. That is my calling in life.”

But again, my family was very helpful in that case. They said, “John, you know, that is a good thing, because when times get hard, people are still going to clean up. It is good to have something you can see and sell.”

And that is true. So I was a factory rep and that was a real good experience for me it was great being in Wilmington where I met Liz; that was probably the best of all. But I think back on that time, that yes, God could have just revealed it that summer when I talked with my uncle, but really it was about three years later. And what I realize now was, the directions and the guidance came as I was ready. He gave me about three years to get ready. He knew that I had a lot of faith growing to do before I went to seminary. I had some experiences that He wanted me to have. He knew that, but I didn’t know that. But finally when that decision came, it was not a hard decision. And so, I did wind up going to Atlanta, but it was to seminary. That’s not what I had planned, but His plan is better. Isaiah said it this way,

And they are. God will surprise you as you will take the time to receive his guidance, and to hear what He really wants you to do.

Let us pray: We thank you today that we can still trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Amen.