Advent, Week 1, Faith

Welcome to the season of Advent! Where I sit, it is a balmy 70 degrees. It looks like anything but Christmas. The large department stores are displaying holiday decorations and playing “Jingle Bells”, but from street to street, there is not a hint of the Yuletide. Still, I know it is coming! Experience has bolstered my faith. More than faith in the mere fact that a date on the calendar is coming (and with it all the holiday decorations and traditions) I have faith that I will experience Christmas in my heart. How about you?

In the first chapter of Ruth, we find a foundation of faith. An Israelite man named Elimelech moves with his wife, Naomi, and two sons to Moab. They are driven by hunger, for Israel is experiencing a famine. In Moab, Elimelech dies. Both his sons marry Moabite women; one is named Orpah, the other, Ruth. When both men die, Naomi, Orpah and Ruth are left to fend for themselves. They are hungry again. But this time, their hunger is not the only thing driving them on...Naomi has heard that in Israel, ”the Lord had visited His people in giving them food” (Ruth 1:6). Faith, though perhaps small, rises in her heart and she decides to return to Israel. Orpah and Ruth love Naomi, and both set out with her. She discourages them, giving them no promise of a better life or future husbands. Reluctantly, Orpah eventually bids a tearful good-bye and returns to Moab. Ruth, however, clings to Naomi. Faith has somehow become her own. With no promise from outside of her own heart, she presses on with her mother-in-law. Faith strengthens and motivates Ruth to leave her culture, her language and her people.

Faith is the vessel of courage. Just read the great “Faith Hall of Fame”in Hebrews 11: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Gideon, David, Samuel and more…”who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength after being weak, become mighty in battle, and put armiesto flight” (Hebrews 11:33, 34). Faith, it seems, is powerful stuff.

During this initial week of preparing our hearts to receive Christ-mas anew, this first chapter of Ruth brings us to some important questions to consider:
1. What am I hungry—really hungry-- for?
2. What situations are driving my thinking, my attitudes, my decisionsright now?
3. Where is God at work? Am I moving toward that place?
4. Have I made faith my own, independent of the faith of others around me, or my heritage, or my culture?
5. How does “faith” respond to the difficulties I am currently facing? Am I willing to do whatever it takes, leave whatever should be left, let go of the past (good or bad), and go forward, perhaps to an uncertain outcome?

May the Holy Spirit grant us faith to let Him examine our lives, and may faith give rise to courage to surrender everything to Him!

Grace and peace!