No Naomi, God Loves You

I love Naomi in the Bible. I honestly think that out of everyone in the Old Testament, she would be the one that I wish I could go back in time and meet in person. I have a deep compassion for Naomi because I believe that she is no different than most women, me included.

There was a time where I firmly believed that my own worth was dependent on a man saying I was. Because of this belief, I went a really horrible direction in life and I sought attention and self worth through the lies of Satan. Now after years of overcoming that attitude, I read the Book of Ruth and I see Naomi through a different light and feel like I understand her even better. From the way I see her now I love her even more.

When Naomi lost her lost her husband and sons, she felt worthless and convinced herself that God has punished her. Although she respected God and knew who He was, she still felt certain that He was angry with her.

If I had the chance to sit down with Naomi today, I would want her to know a few things.

1. That God is the most loving of Fathers and would never intentionally punish someone in the way she believed He did to her.

2. That He would feel heartbroken to know that she saw herself in such a negative light; when He created her, He saw her as perfect.

3. That the enemy had deceived her by using low self esteem and depression to further separate herself from Him. And lastly number

4. I would hug her and pray over her so that she would come to know God for the Ultimate Love He is and pray that she would allow Him to erase her pain and shame.

Looking deeper into Naomi, you could say that she appeared to be humble. In my own observation, I noticed that she simply felt shame in her life and that is what made her believe that she wasn’t worthy of having Ruth or anyone for that matter stay by her side.

When we ourselves feel shame, it is common for us to push our Christian friends away or shut them out. Shame is dangerous and it causes us to separate away from God. When we experience shame in our lives, we become convinced that we are not worthy to be cared by people or to be heard out because we have done wrong or experienced something bad and don’t deserve grace.

As much as people would love to be Ruth in the story, I think that it is safe to say that at some point we all have to admit that we have either been a Naomi or are still one today.

So my challenge to you is that you search within yourself to see if there are any areas in your life where you feel shame or unworthy. If you come across something, pray about it and simply let go and give it to God.

Naomi didn’t know Jesus Christ and she died most likely with that shame and misunderstanding of God within her. Let that not be you either. God loves you and wants a relationship with you!! Let that simple fact triumph over any insecurity that you could possibly have in life.