

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” (Is. 43:18-19 NIV)
Permit me to ask you something rather pointedly: Are you prepared to allow the Spirit of God to change your status quo? Are you truly ready for the Lord to do something new in your life? Something unexpected? Out of the ordinary? Are you ready to follow Him down roads you’ve never traveled? Are you open to the possibility that He might bless you in an unexpected, perhaps startling way?
None of us would be so arrogant as to say, “I know it all,” yet from time to time we may affect a certain blasé sophistication, a posture of pride that finds it stylish to be critical, cynical or “laid back.” Yet this prideful attitude hamstrings our ability to move into the fresh and the new … and grieves the Spirit of God.
Who says you know what’s next for your life?
Who says God can’t use you in a dramatic, wholly unexpected way?
Who says He can’t lead you into a season of life and ministry beyond anything you’ve ever experienced—or even dreamed?
Just who is the limiting factor here? Is it God? Or are we capable of closing our hearts to what He wants to do in and through our lives?
The Book of Ruth is a true story, a thin slice of real history. But like so much of biblical history, it speaks to us of God’s ways with people … people like you and me. Ruth was a woman who came to a new time and to a new place, and in her experience, there is a message: The Lord is calling each of us to a new time and a new place. And how we respond to His call will not only determine the character of our days here on earth, it will determine our very destiny.