"And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her" (Ruth 1:16-18)
Today's Morsel: Many people today seem to have lost their commitment. We hear that divorce rates in the church are as close to or as high as that in the world. Why does it seem that there is little or no commitment to marriage vows? Why does it seem that too few are committed to the Gospel? Commitment always gives back to commitment. What would you say was the driving factor that made Ruth committed? Was she committed to her vows? Was her commitment to obey God's Word? Did her husband tell her about his home land and his people and she wanted to see it? Did she see that going to a new place would give her a better opportunity to start fresh and anew? Did she know that God was with the children of Israel? Just what drove her commitment to her mother-in-law? The Apostle Paul was a committed man. What would you say was his driving factor? What about Daniel being committed to pray? Or Joseph willing to run rather than to sin against God? Did they each make a personal commitment to God. Did Paul vow to preach the Gospel at all cost? Did Daniel have a personal agreement with God. Or was Joseph taught by Jacob, his father? All four of their lives were at stake, yet they still chose to continue on, why? They show us great commitment, yet believers today have such a hard time with commitment? What would you say that each of us can do to maintain our commitment to God and what He has called us to do? If you will notice all four of them first made a commitment to themselves. Results of commitment are usually in proportion to commitment. For example:
1. In our personal evangelism, we fail more for lack of commitment than lack of methods.
2. In our marriages, we often fail to keep commitments because what we made was not really a commitment, but only a "We'll give it a try" contract that virtually insures failure.
3. In our effort at personal improvement, we do not get any better results than we do because we make such watered-down commitment.
What commitment comes down to is whether we trust the Lord enough to obey Him.
Sing: I am determined to hold out to the end. Jesus is with me, on Him I can depend, for I know I have salvation, for I feel Him in my soul. I am determined to hold out to the end.
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