Pastor Joyce Meyers offers a gentle and loving reminder that God provides favor when we delight in His ways. In this sermon, Joyce Meyer highlights this topic by discussing Ruth from the Book of Ruth.
She begins by meaning Ruth’s background. Joyce mentions that Ruth was not a believer, but she was a daughter-in-law to a believer named Naomi. This woman, Naomi, had a husband, and two sons who were married, all of whom died. Afterward, Naomi told both of her daughters-in-law that they could leave her and go back to their countries of origin. Of the two, Ruth decided to stay.
“And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after 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.” (Ruth 1:16)
“How many people will choose difficulty just to prove themselves faithful to somebody?” She poses this question to her audience.
Then Joyce went on to talk about how the concept of favor is present in this story. Naomi found favor from Boaz who allowed her to glean crops from his field. Joyce mentions the rule in the country of Bethlehem about leaving certain crops for the poor to glean after the initial harvesting. Boaz gave Naomi this option and by proxy, also set Ruth up to receive this same benefit.
Joyce said that this favor was given to Ruth because she showed favor to Naomi by not leaving her.
“If you will be faithful, it will release the favor of God in your life,” Joyce stated. “If you’re faithful in little things, God will give you favor that will leave you in shock.”
She read through Scripture to highlight the favor given to Ruth as indicated in Ruth 2:10-12.
Joyce makes sure that we understand that though we may not get everything we want, God will still leave us purposeful “handfuls” much like Ruth was given purposeful handfuls of grain from Boaz’s field.
She referred to these as, ‘little winks from God just to let you know He’s here.” These winks can keep us encouraged and motivated to push through adversity. The issue, Joyce mentions, is that sometimes we are so focused on the bigger picture that we miss the “little things.”
If we can keep our eyes trained on God, surely we can see the small things as they occur, and in time we’ll get the bigger picture, and prayerfully, the continued favor of God.