​"Sit still, my daughter, for the man will not rest, until he have finished
​the thing this day." — Rth_3:18.

PARADISE HAS vanished from our world, as the picture of a landscape vanishes when swept by storm. And our race stands in much the same plight as did Naomi and Ruth in this old-world story. We have lost our inheritance, and the one barrier which stands between us and despair is the Person and Work of our Lord Jesus Christ. But, thank God, we need have no doubt as to the sequel. For as Boaz claimed back the estate for Ruth, so may we be confident that Jesus Christ will never be at rest till this sin-stained and distracted world is restored to her primitive order and beauty, as when the morning-stars sang for joy.
Jesus is our near Kinsman by His assumption of our nature. He is the nearest and dearest Friend of our race, who stooped to die for our redemption. And the fact that He carried our nature in Himself to heaven, and wears it there, is an indissoluble bond between us. Sit still! do not fret! He will never fail, as He will certainly never forsake!
Let us seek the quiet heart in our prayers. Prayer must arise within us as a fountain from unknown depths. But we must leave it to God to answer in His own wisest way. We are so impatient, and think that God does not answer. A child asked God for fine weather on her birthday, and it rained! Some one said, "God didn't answer your prayer." "Oh yes," she replied, "He did, God always answers, but He said No!" God always answers! He never fails! Be still! If we abide in Him, and He abides in us, we ask what we will, and it is done. As a sound may dislodge an avalanche, so the prayer of faith sets in motion the power of God.
In times of difficulty—be still! Thine enemies are plotting thine overthrow! They laugh at thy strong confidence! But hast thou not heard His voice saying: "This is the way, walk ye in it"? Then leave Him to deal with thy foes from whatever quarter they come. He is thy Rock, and rocks do not shake. He is thy High Tower, and a high tower cannot be flooded. Thou needest mercy, and to Him belongeth mercy. Do not run hither and thither in panic! Just quietly wait, hushing thy soul, as He did the fears of His friends on the eve of Gethsemane and Calvary. "Rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him." "Be still, for He will not rest, until He hath finished the thing this day."
​(Our Daily Walk)

Note: As I read this devotional the Holy Spirit directed me to add a prophetic message He gave me to speak at my church at the time-because it speaks of God's mind for His people today, and His great love, and protection for those who belong to Him. This message was spoken to the congregation on March 4, 2001, with the both pastor's permission:

"As Ruth came and laid at Boaz' feet, he covered her with his skirt, protected her, and provided for her. He took her as his own, He was her near kinsman.
Come and lay at my feet, let me cover you with my garment. Rest with me, you are precious to me. Every drop of my blood that fell to the ground, cried I love you, I forgive you, you are mine.  Let me hold you close to myself,
​I AM your kinsman Redeemer, let me protect you, cover you, provide for you. For consider this: Am I not greater than Boaz?"

“OUR REFUGE AND STRENGTH”
Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob
​is our refuge. Selah. Psa 46:10-11

​The historical origin of this psalm cannot be certainly determined. Probably it was composed when Jerusalem was beleaguered by Sennacherib’s hosts, 2Ki_18:1-37. It befits every era in which the Church is in danger from her foes, and foretells the final destruction of Antichrist. It was Luther’s favorite psalm, and is rendered into verse in his memorable hymn, Ein’ Feste Burg. During the sitting of the Diet of Augsburg he sang it every day to his lute, standing at the window and looking up to heaven. The theme of the psalm is the security of God’s people, and this is elaborated in three stanzas, each of which ends with Selah.
Alone among great cities, Jerusalem lacked a river; but God was willing to become all that a river could be and more. Your deficiencies give more room for God’s all-sufficiency. Mark the beautiful alternative translation of Psa_46:5, R.V., margin, “at the dawn of morning.” Your sorrow is limited to a single night. See also Isa_37:36; Mat_14:25. Be still, O troubled heart! The God of the nations is your Father! Desolations are the snapping off of the dead branches to prepare for the spring. F.B. Meyer

Personal note: The prophetic message added to this devotion was in no way a message of my being personally involved with, or intending to be in a relation with any man outside of marriage. I've been shown some have misconstrued this and gotten this impression-I am a widow of almost 20 years, and never intend to remarry, and am in no relationship with anyone. This was posted to give a word of comfort, encouragement and give the reader God's mind and His great heart for those who belong to Him, and are believer's in Christ. Question: do you have that relationship with Jesus Christ? Are you born again, and are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? If not, do not put it off-today is the day of salvation, we are not promised tomorrow. Then, when you would go back and read this prophetic message-put it into your own personal context; as God is speaking to you.
For a deeper understanding of the verse Ruth 3:18, also go to these verses, for further insight, and may the Lord touch your heart, and open your eyes, if you do take the time to do this study:
See- Psa_37:3-5; Isa_28:16, Isa_30:7, and Isaiah ch. 54 read the entire chapter

​In this short teaching, I'll point out some things about Amos, a chosen prophet of God during the days of Uzziah king of Judah. He is placed among the minor prophets in the bible, but his messages are of equal power, and significance. In the first verse we read:

Amo 1:1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

There are several things I'd like to glean from this one verse. It is loaded with insights, that may be missed.

1. He seems to have been among the very lowest orders of life, a herdsman, one who tended the flocks of others in the open fields, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. Of whatever species this was, whether a kind of fig, it is evident that it was wild fruit; and he probably collected it for his own subsistence, or to dispose of either for the service of his employer, or to increase his scanty wages.

2. In this verse we can see the confirmation that God chooses “the weak things of the world to confound the mighty,” and makes a humble shepherd reprove the arrogance of Israel and her king arising from prosperity (compare 1Sa_17:40).

Further on in ch. 7:14, Amos says this about himself:
Amo 7:14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdsman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:

In this verse he was saying-"I was not, says Amos, of the order of prophets, or educated in their schools, and deriving a livelihood from exercising the public functions of a prophet. I am a shepherd (compare Amo_7:15, “flock”; the Hebrew for “herdsman” includes the meaning, shepherd, compare Amo_1:1) in humble position, who did not even think of prophesying among you, until a divine call impelled me to it."

3. The daily environment of Amos' life was what gave him the keen discernment, and eyes to see the people and land before him-with the eyes of God's wisdom. Amos was not a citizen of the Northern Kingdom, to which he almost exclusively refers; but it was because he went up and down in it, using those eyes which the desert air had sharpened, that he so thoroughly learned the wickedness of its people, the corruption of Israel’s life in every rank and class of society.

4. We see within his speech as we read his messages the tokens of a man, honest and awake. No mincing words, no wasted words, but concise and with the power to cut through the deceptions of those he addressed. He was a realist, one able to cut through and divide a truth from a lie, and describe with clarity, the intentions of the hearts of those he confronted, and exposed. He opened up to them, their own evil intentions, their very hearts-this was the work of God. Making them hear the descriptions of their own conduct, from someone who saw through them with the piercing eyes of indwelt by God.

In the account of Amos, we see the ability of the Holy Spirit to take anyone, no matter what their status in life, and use them. In studying the life of the disciples in the New Testament, we see the same pattern, of God molding and forging the same kind of vessels, fit for the Master's use. Peter, the rough fisherman, Matthew the tax collector, Thomas, the weak in faith.

What God was able to do with Amos, is an example of what the power of God can do through anyone, who will say yes, and obey him. If God calls you, He will equip you.
Lorna Couillard

"I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in Thy sight." Psa_51:3-4.
"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God."  Rom_3:23.

​THIS PSALM is a temple-staircase, worn by the feet of myriads of penitents. The page is wet with the tears alike of the most saintly and the most sinful. Augustine had them written on the walls of his tiny cell at Hippo, that he might appropriate them constantly. Perhaps they are more precious to us at the end of life than the beginning.
Note the definitions of sin. It is an erasure or blot on the fair page of life; hence the cry, "Blot out my transgressions." Oh that God would blot out the scribblings and smudges of our later years, and bring back the fresh beauty of our youth! It is a stain on the white robe of the soul; hence the petition: "Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity." There is but one way into the Holy City: "Blessed are they that wash their robes, and make them white in the Blood of the Lamb." It is leprosy; hence the cry, "Cleanse me from my sin; purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." There was special significance, then, for thee and me when Jesus reached forth His hand and touched the leper, saying: "Be thou clean."
Note the condition of forgiveness. It is confession. Transgression must be acknowledged. We must realise that sin is not only against man, but God, to whom man belongs, and who is affronted by all sin as committed directly against Himself. And our confession must not be superficial, but deep and heart-searching. We must go back to our earliest origins, to our connection with a sinful race, to our inward and hidden parts.
Note the cry for purity and righteousness of life. The clean heart has to be created, for there are no materials within us out of which it can be shaped or moulded. Eph_4:24 tells us that full provision has been made for this. We desire a "right," or steadfast spirit, which shall not deviate to the right or left, but bear straight onward to the goal. The Greek word for sin is "missing the mark." We long for a spirit that shall not be deflected. We desire a "free" or willing spirit (R.V. marg.). Yea, what a transformation is here! But it has been effected in myriads (1Co_6:11).  (Source- Our Daily Walk)

Psa 51:3 “For I acknowledge my transgressions.” Here he sees the plurality and immense number of his sins, and makes open declaration of them. He seems to say, I make a full confession of them. Not that this is my plea in seeking forgiveness, but it is a clear evidence that I need mercy, and am utterly unable to look to any other quarter for help. My pleading guilty has barred me from any appeal against the sentence of justice: O Lord, I must cast myself on thy mercy, refuse me not, I pray thee. Thou hast made me willing to confess. O follow up this work of grace with a full and free remission! “And my sin is ever before me.” My sin as a whole is never out of my mind; it continually oppresses my spirit. I lay it before thee because it is ever before me: Lord, put it away both from thee and me. To an awakened conscience, pain on account of sin is not transient and occasional, but intense and permanent, and this is no sign of divine wrath, but rather a sure preface of abounding favour.
Psa 51:4 “Against thee, thee only have I sinned.” The virus of sin lies in its opposition to God: the Psalmist's sense of sin towards others rather tended to increase the force of his feeling of sin against God. All his wrong-doing centred, culminated, and came to a climax, at the foot of the divine throne. To injure our fellow men is sin, mainly because in so doing we violate the law of God. The penitent's heart was so filled with a sense of the wrong done to the Lord himself, that all other confession was swallowed up in a broken-hearted acknowledgment of offence against him. “And done this evil in thy sight.” To commit treason in the very court of the king and before his eye is impudence indeed: David felt that his sin was committed in all its filthiness while Jehovah himself looked on. None but a child of God cares for the eye of God, but where there is grace in the soul it reflects a fearful guilt upon every evil act, when we remember that the God whom we offend was present when the trespass was committed. “That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.” He could not present any argument against divine justice, if it proceeded at once to condemn him and punish him for his crime. His own confession, and the judge's own witness of the whole transaction, placed the transgression beyond all question or debate; the iniquity was indisputably committed, and was unquestionably a foul wrong, and therefore the course of justice was clear and beyond all controversy.
​
The most important of verses:
Psa_51:7
 “Purge me with hyssop.” Sprinkle the atoning blood upon me with the appointed means. Give me the reality which legal ceremonies symbolise. Nothing but blood can take away my blood-stains, nothing but the strongest purification can avail to cleanse me. Let the sin-offering purge my sin. Let him who was appointed to atone, execute his sacred office on me; for none can need it more than I. The passage may be read as the voice of faith as well as a prayer, and so it runs - “Thou wilt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.” Foul as I am, there is such power in the divine propitiation, that my sin shall vanish quite away. Like the leper upon whom the priest has performed the cleansing rites, I shall be again admitted into the assembly of thy people and allowed to share in the privileges of the true Israel; while in thy sight also, through Jesus my Lord, I shall be accepted. “Wash me.” Let it not merely be in type that I am clean, but by real spiritual purification, which shall remove the pollution of my nature. Let the sanctifying as well as the pardoning process be perfected in me. Save me from the evils which my sin has created and nourished in me. “And I shall be whiter than snow.” None but thyself can whiten me, but thou canst in grace outdo nature itself in its purest state. Snow soon gathers smoke and dust, it melts and disappears; thou canst give me an enduring purity. Though snow is white below as well as on the surface, thou canst work the like inward purity in me, and make me so clean that only an hyperbole can set forth my immaculate condition. Lord, do this; my faith believes thou wilt, and well she knows thou canst.
Scarcely does Holy Scripture contain a verse more full of faith than this. Considering the nature of the sin, and the deep sense the Psalmist had of it, it is a glorious faith to be able to see in the blood sufficient, nay, all-sufficient merit entirely to purge it away. Considering also the deep, natural inbred corruption which David saw and experienced within, it is a miracle of faith that he could rejoice in the hope of perfect purity in his inward parts. Yet, be it added, the faith is no more than the word warrants, than the blood of atonement encourages, than the promise of God deserves. O that some reader may take heart, even now while smarting under sin, to do the Lord the honour to rely thus confidently on the finished sacrifice of Calvary and the infinite mercy there revealed.