Seeking Comfort in Community

God Instructs the People of God

Listening for God in Changing Times:

Choosing a Community

Ruth 1:1-7

The Message

 ^1-2Once upon a time—it was back in the days when judges led Israel— there was a famine in the land. A man from Bethlehem in Judah left home to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The man's name was Elimelech; his wife's name was Naomi; his sons were named Mahlon and Kilion—all Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They all went to the country of Moab and settled there. ^3-5 Elimelech died and Naomi was left, she and her two sons. The sons took Moabite wives; the name of the first was Orpah, the second Ruth. They lived there in Moab for the next ten years. But then the two brothers, Mahlon and Kilion, died. Now the woman was left without either her young men or her husband.

^6-7 One day she got herself together, she and her two daughters-in-law, to leave the country of Moab and set out for home; she had heard that God had been pleased to visit his people and give them food. And so she started out from the place she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law with her, on the road back to the land of Judah.

For Reflection
In those days to live without a husband was to live as a non-person. With no family to support them, Naomi sought the only comfort that was available to her. 

Where do you find comfort?  How did you select the Christian community in which you now enjoy the fellowship in the Holy Spirit?  Why did you not select other Christian fellowships?  Have you left one Christian community for another?  What did you find there that you could not find in the former community?

People change.   Life circumstances change.  The character of Christian communities change.  Discomfort and change is inevitable.  God calls each believer to different purposes.  God will resolve the conflict.  Pray and listen quietly to his gentle guidance.

Pray
for all people who can not find comfort in community.  Pray for all Christians, that they may find comfort in the fellowship of believers.  Pray that you will listen to the whispers of the Holy Spirit to guide you in selecting communities to which you can practice faithfulness to your call.