Steadfastly Minded (Intro)

I was reading in the book of Ruth one day when a particular verse caught my eye. Naomi, with her husband and two sons, had moved away from Bethlehem to Moab due to famine. While there, her two sons married Moabite wives, Orpah and Ruth. Eventually, Noami's husband and two sons died, leaving her alone with her two daughters in law. When she heard there was no longer a famine back home, Naomi decided to move back to Bethlehem but encouraged her daughters in law to stay in Moab and return to their families. Orpah and Ruth both argued to stay with Naomi, but she encouraged them all the more to return home. Orpah eventually gave in and returned to her family, but Ruth refused. She said "Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you" (1:16-17). Ruth displays such a strong devotion to Naomi which is beautiful, but it's the next verse that really catches my attention. It says, "And when Naomi saw that she [Ruth] was determined to go with her, she said no more" (v.18).

Naomi saw that Ruth was so determined to stay with her that she knew she couldn't change her mind, and so she stopped trying to. And it made me think about us. What are we so determined in that nothing can change our mind? James 4:7 says "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." What would happen if we did that? What would happen if we submitted to the truth of God and resisted the lies of the enemy? Could we be so determined in the things of God that the enemy would flee from us because he could see our trust was unshakeable? Can we be so determined to believe God even when we can't make sense of His truth? So determined in Who God is that nothing, not even our doubts and fears, can separate us from believing Him? I want to. I really want to.

I'm tired of believing doubts out of fear rather than God's truth.

How do you resist the enemy though? I feel like I've tried and failed so many times; and it seems almost impossible to resist him sometimes, especially when the attacks just keep coming and you're weary. But James 4:7 says the enemy will flee if we resist him, so we need to learn how. I can tell you from personal experience that it likely won't be through reasoning or feelings. If you really want to resist the lies and attacks of the enemy, it can only be through truth. You can't resist him by shear force alone, but rather by trusting in something greater than him, something that he has no power to shake, which is the Word of God.

The word used for 'determined' in the verse above is a Hebrew word that can be translated 'steadfastly minded'. Ruth was steadfastly minded, and because of that, Naomi could not persuade her to change. I want that type of mindset. I want to be so steadfastly minded in the things of God that the enemy will flee from me because he knows nothing that he can do will shake my trust. I want to be so steadfastly minded in who God is that I trust Him even when I can't make sense of His truth or of what is happening around me. I don't want anything to be able to shake my trust in Him, not even my doubts or fears. I want to be steadfastly minded.

If we want to be steadfastly minded though, then we need something to hold steadfastly to. And if we want to hold steadfastly to God's word, then that means we need to know His word. And I don't mean just having an awareness of it, but rather, knowing it to our core. I believe God's word is life-changing when we take it to heart and actually apply it, and so over the next few weeks/months I plan to study out what it means to be steadfastly minded in the Scriptures and how we can apply that knowledge to our lives. I'd love for you to join me!