A prayer based on Ruth 1:1-5.

<aside> 🙏🏻 Our Lord and our God. The One whose throne is established in the heavens; who sits enthroned between the cherubim; who rules and reigns; and who is exalted over all the nations. We praise You for Your great and awesome Name. You are holy. You are mighty and love justice. We worship You. We magnify You now.

Thank You for the love You show to this world. For sending rain from heaven and crops in their seasons. For providing food and filling our hearts with joy. Yet we recognise that none of this is deserved. It is not a right we have, but a sign of Your kindness to us. And we acknowledge that there are times when You withhold this kindness. Sometimes in discipline to rebuke and restrain the ways of us, Your people. To cause us to acknowledge our wanderings from You. Other time You do this to test us. To see if we really do love You; that we really do trust in You Son, who both Saviour and Lord; And to see if we are willing to take up our cross and follow Him.

Loving Father, we confess that when difficulty comes, we are often tempted to look elsewhere for relief. We look to the world around us, and seeing the wicked prosper, we are tempted to join in with they do. We are like Elimelech in the book of Ruth, who when there was a famine in the land, when there was no bread in house of bread, in Bethlehem, showed a lack of belief in You and Your ability to provide, by taking his wife Naomi and two sons to Moab. Like him, we think we can come up with solutions for dealing with our hardships and difficulties apart from You, rather than leaning upon You by being patient and learning obedience. Forgive us we pray. Open our eyes to see the foolishness of behaving this way and of taking a path that may lead to reward in this life, but not in the life to come.

Thank You that everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, and that the examples of Your people we find, are given to teach and rebuke us, to correct and train us, so that we might live more faithful lives. Thank You that the Scriptures tell us that Jesus, the One man who never once showed a lack of belief in You. That every moment of His life He trusted You and obeyed Your Word. That when You tested Him, He did not sin, He did not look for temporary relief in the pleasures of this world. Thank You that even when the test involved drinking the cup of Your wrath at our sins and transgressions, He did not shrink back, and because He didn’t, we can be saved through faith in Him.

Holy Spirit, help us, we pray. Help us to be quick to repent when we are being disciplined. Help us to endure when we are being tested. Help us to believe when we doubt Your care. Help us to resist the temptation to look for quick relief from our troubles instead of learning the lessons You might be seeking to teach us, so that we become more and more like Christ. We really do desperately need Your help if we are to live in a manner worthy of the salvation we have received, to take up our cross daily, and to follow the Lord Jesus. In His Name we pray.

Amen.

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