This week I have been sharing the first 7 days of a 21 day devotional made available at Grace Community Church.  It was produced by Pastor Charissa Morgan and written by her and other co-laborers in her family in Christ. She shares that it is commonly thought to take 21 days to make or break a habit.  She is believing that this devotional will be the launching pad God uses in individual lives to catapult each one into a deeper, more meaningful relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I pray you will enjoy each day’s insight from different authors.  You can go to the web page at  gracecommunitysalem.org to learn more about our amazing church family at Grace.

Day 4: Don’t Settle!

By Christa Barnes

In Ruth, chapters 1-4, we read of Ruth’s love story with Boaz, which parallels our relationship with our Lord on so many levels. Ruth entered the homeland of her mother-in-law, Naomi, as a foreigner. As a widow trying to survive, Ruth asked to glean behind the harvesters in the barley fields. Boaz, the owner of the field, went to his young men and graciously ordered them to let Ruth glean among the sheaves—that is, right where they were working and where the pickings would be the easiest. He even told them to subtly drop handfuls of grain where she could find them.  Ruth could have settled at that point. She went home with more than enough and would have been allowed to continue to glean…but it eventually dawned on her that there could be so much more!!! Ruth went against socially accepted norms of the times, seeking out Boaz in the middle of the night, and planting herself at his feet to show her commitment and desire for a deeper relationship with him. Because of this, instead of filling her pockets with mere seeds day after day, she moved from GLEANER to OWNER when Boaz married her!

Let’s follow Ruth’s lead. We, too, are foreigners that have been accepted and allowed to partake of the bounty of the land, thanks to the generosity of the landowner. Titus 3:4, 6-7 says, “But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared…Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs.” Although we have no entitlement or expectation of fair and equal treatment, at His invitation and His redemptive work at the Cross, we have been given much more than we deserve; we could settle as “gleaners” of the spiritual realm…running from service to service, trying to pick up seeds to fill our pockets and just surviving…but, if we’ll position ourselves at His feet and desire deeper, we will enrich our spiritual inheritance to a level beyond our wildest dreams! Don’t settle!!