God won't rest
God cares for me like a loving husband cares for his wife. He won't rest until my needs are met. He does the same for you too!
Scripture uses the picture of a husband loving his wife to show how God cares for us. You find this analogy in the book Song of Solomon, and it is a theme of the writings of the Old Testament prophets — specifically the book of Hosea. It continues through the New Testament which different authors show us Jesus as the groom and the church as his bride.
In the Old Testament, the prophet, Hosea, is told by God to marry a prostitute. After he marries her, she continually turns back to her old way of life instead of staying in the new life provided for her. God was painting a picture for the nation of Israel. The image was clear —
God is faithful even when I am not.
God won’t rest until things are settled today.
There is another and much more flattering version of the story found centuries before in the book of Ruth. Ruth was a woman from the country of Moab who married a Jewish man she met in her home country. He was living in Moab because his family had fled a famine ravaging his hometown of Bethlehem.
As the story goes, he, his brother, and his father all pass away in Moab leaving Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi as widows. Naomi and Ruth moved back to Naomi’s hometown in hopes of finding support from Naomi’s relatives. They do find help, and they find a potential suitor for Ruth — a man named Boaz.
When Boaz arrived as a potential husband for Ruth, Naomi began to play matchmaker. She pulled strings to move things along, but she should only do so much. Due to the custom of the day, Boaz was required to give the first opportunity to a closer relative to come to Ruth and Naomi’s aid. Ruth reports this to Naomi, and this is how Naomi replies:
“Then Naomi said to her, ‘Just be patient, my daughter, until we hear what happens. The man won’t rest until he has settled things today.’” -Ruth 3:18 NLT
Naomi’s statement is about a potential husband for Ruth, but it also speaks to the nature of God. Here are two things I want to point out about Naomi’s statement:
1. God does not want you to be passive.
Ruth had done all she could do to attract the attention of Boaz. She worked hard to support herself and her mother-in-law. She had followed the harvesters in the field reaping all they missed.
Ruth also wasn’t subtle in her interest in Boaz. She made it known she was interested in him and hoped for him to return her interest. Ruth was not passive in her circumstances.
God doesn’t want you to be passive with your needs and desires. He has given you the agency to control your actions and choices. God expects you to work toward the fulfillment of your needs and dreams, yet some things remain out of your control.
2. Be patient as God works in your favor.
Naomi told Ruth to wait for Boaz to act. Ruth had done all she could do to change her circumstances, now she would need to be patient.
There always will come a point as I work to change my life when things will be out of my control. I’ve done all I can do. It’s at that point, where I must fully rely on God. I must choose to be patient.
At that point, I must have faith that God is working in my favor.
Pray like it’s up to God.
A decade ago, Mark Batterson wrote the book called Circle Makers. In this book, Batterson wrote,
“Work like it’s up to you. Pray like it’s up to God.”
This isn’t a concept new to Mark Batterson, but he brought light to it. It’s an idea discussed among early church theologians like Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. Christian thinkers from the 20th century like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and CS Lewis talked about it too. They used terms like ‘prevenient grace’ and ‘sanctifying grace’ or ‘cheap grace’ and ‘costly grace’.
It’s the same idea Naomi conveyed to Ruth. I need to work hard to change my fate while trusting God will do what I cannot. In other words, we work like it’s up to us, but we pray knowing it everything comes back to God’s hands.
Prayer + Patience
This week, our washing machine came to a point of no return. It has been a long time in coming, but we’ve been milking all the life out of it we could. At the same time, our refrigerator and oven are on life support. We’ve had the same mattress for 20+ years. And we also really want a new couch for our living room.
You can probably do the math in your head, but we did a quick estimate to replace these items at once. We need around ten thousand dollars.
Due to our hard work of earning and saving, I figured we could come up with about half of the money needed without dipping too far into our savings, but what about the rest?
Yesterday morning, I said a quick prayer (really a complaint) asking God why he hasn’t come through for us. On my mind was, “God why haven’t you kept my appliances running? You’ve done it for other people!” If I had stopped for a moment longer, I would have heard the words of Naomi — “Just be patient. God won’t rest until he has things settled today.”
Last night, Kia told me we will unexpectedly see a tax return of $5,000 in a few weeks. Then I did slow down, and I heard His whisper…
Work like it’s up to me.
Pray like it’s up to God.
God won’t rest until he has settled things today.
Where are you waiting for God to settle things in your life? In the comments, let me know how can I pray with you to see God move in your life.
Writing Playlist
I don’t know if we have the same taste in music, but here are some songs to explore. All the links go to Spotify. While writing this post, this is some of what I was listening to:
I Don’t Have Much - Mission House
Without You - RIDERS
Patient and Kind - Jonathan Ogden