Day 16: Selfless Love
Read: Ruth 1:6-18
Growing up, I was always told to help my mother wash the dishes. I hated it. It was the bane of my 7-year old self’s existence. But one day I was forced out of this mentality. My mom told me that my grandfather once said, “the best help is when you don’t want to do it.” Help means more when you do something you hate, but you still do it out of love for the other person.
Naomi felt helpless and hopeless when she lost everything. When she saw there was nothing left for her in Moab, she decided to return to Bethlehem. It’s important to note from the previous verses that her husband Elimelek had left the promised land (Ruth 1:2). He had trusted himself instead of trusting that God would provide. Naomi decided to leave this land of disobedience, and return to her people. In the same way, we must look at where we are in our lives and evaluate whether or not we should be there. If we’re sinning and being disobedient, we must walk away from that place and back to where God told us to be.
In the verses for today, we see that both of Naomi’s daughter-in-laws, Ruth and Orpah, said they would go to Bethlehem with her, but Orpah changed her mind and stayed in Moab. Ruth, on the other hand, remained faithful to Naomi and refused to leave her side. She committed herself to Naomi, leaving everything that she knew – her people, her culture, her land, and even her gods. Ruth chose to sacrifice everything out of selfless love of her mother-in-law (Ruth 1:11-18).
This is the love we are to show others. The message is clear in Luke 10 when scripture says, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” We must love selflessly with no restraint. Help even when it hurts. Don’t restrain yourself from helping others because it pushes you out of your comfort zone. Force yourself out of your comfort zone, make time for people, invest in them, love fiercely, sit with them when they are suffering, comfort them when they need it.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” (2 Cor. 1:4)
How have you neglected to help others recently? Pray and confess to Him, asking Him to help you change. What are ways that you can love other people well? Ask God to help you love others. Seek to love as Christ would, not holding anything back.