Strong Commitment

Read Ruth.

Too many people don’t take their commitments seriously anymore, do they? Commitment usually comes with a cost, and if it inconveniences us, we don‘t want it. However, relying on God helps us keep our commitments. Take marriage for example. Marriage is really a covenant, a commitment, between two people, made to each other and to God. Happy feelings come and go many times in our lives, but commitment provides the mortar to hold things together through the rough spots. God should always come first. He should be on the throne of our lives and not ourselves.

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 thou God my God (Ruth 1:16).

In the Bible, Ruth demonstrated how committed she was to her mother-in-law and her welfare. Ruth left all that she knew to accompany Naomi back to a land foreign to the younger woman. She toiled hard gleaning in the fields to provide them with something to eat. And she humbled herself before Boaz because that's what Naomi thought best. Ruth's commitment to Naomi and her God was binding and permanent.

If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth (Numbers 30:2).

We can learn several lessons from Ruth. One is that our commitment to God should express itself in our commitment to others. When we serve others, we have the opportunity to deny ourselves and to honor God in obedience. Godly people will fulfill their commitments. And as a part of this, we need to be committed to telling others about Christ. It is our great commission and stems from loving, caring for, and serving others as Christ commanded. Honoring commitments is part of what it means to be a Christian.

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