Ruth 2:17-20 New International Version (NIV)
17 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.[a] 18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough. 19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!” Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.
20 “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.[b] Thurs. November 5 Ruth has gone out and worked hard all day to bring something home for her bitter mother-in-law, Naomi. Boaz has been a righteous and protective man who has blessed Ruth and, by proxy, Naomi. It is in their care for one another and their acts of mercy and kindness that Naomi’s heart is beginning to turn once again from bitterness and death to joy and life. Ruth and Boaz did not realize what they were doing. They were not intending for her heart to be changed. They just cared for her and one another. It is in the seemingly ordinary and everyday acts of love, service, hard work and righteousness that God uses us to bless others and open their hearts to His love. We might not even know that we are doing it! But as we keep our hearts and minds fixed on Jesus and what He has done for us, then God will use us to give hope, build faith and transform the hearts of others.
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