S8.1 | Enduring the Winter: Trusting God's Plan
In the season eight premiere of Affirming Truth, host Carla Arges explores the significance of winter seasons in our lives and how they parallel the natural cycles of the weather. As we navigate through times of darkness, isolation, and loss, Carla offers authentic encouragement rooted in faith and the promise of a hopeful spring ahead.
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Key Takeaways
Embracing Necessary Seasons:
Like the changing weather, our lives also experience periods of desolation. Carla highlights how these winter seasons, although challenging, are necessary for growth and eventual renewal
Purpose in the Process
Drawing inspiration from Isaiah 35:1, Carla reminds listeners that the barrenness of winter is not the ultimate fate. Instead, it is a preparatory phase for blooming and celebration that may follow.
Multiplication in Adversity
Using the analogy of tulip bulbs, Carla illustrates that during our winter seasons, we are being rooted and refined for future multiplication and blessings that go beyond individual fulfillment.
Affirming Truth
"I will trust God in winter and look expectantly to the spring ahead."
Quoted Scriptures:
- Isaiah 35:1
- John 16:33
- Romans 8:18
- James 1:3-4
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TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Carla: Hey friends, welcome to Affirming Truths. I'm your friend and host, Carla Arges. This show is a safe place to share our struggles, grow in faith, and root our identity in Christ. My hope is that you will leave each episode feeling encouraged in your journey. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode and it would mean the world to me if you would leave a review.
[00:00:22] Carla: I am so glad you're here. Let's get started. Hey friends, welcome to this episode of Affirming Truth. I am your host, Carla Arges, and I cannot wait to dive into today's topic. I am currently going through the Book of Ruth. I've gone through Ruth before, in fact, many times, but what I love about the Word of God is I always get something new out of it, even if I feel like it's the same story.
[00:00:52] Carla: And I had an aha moment this morning reading in Ruth. Now, if you don't know about Ruth, it's [00:01:00] an Old Testament book of the Bible. Um, and it really is a beautiful picture of God's redemption. Um, for us, the church, um, it shows his salvation plan. Ruth is a Moabite woman, a daughter in law of Naomi, who is a Israelite, a Jewish woman who had left with her husband and sons during famine, something that they should not have done.
[00:01:27] Carla: They left Israel. They left Bethlehem actually where they were from and went to Moabite in search of food and ended up living there for At least a decade. And during this time, Naomi's husband and sons die. So they are left without, um, a male protector. And if you know anything about the culture back then, women didn't have rights.
[00:01:53] Carla: Women didn't have claim over inheritance. Women were, had no power. And [00:02:00] so Naomi decides to go back to Israel, and she tells her daughters in law, who are both Moabite women, stay here, stay with your family, stay with your gods, I'm going back. I have nothing to offer you. One of them leaves, but Ruth cleaves, and that's the language that's used in the Bible.
[00:02:18] Carla: She cleaves to Naomi. That is covenant language. That is the language described when a husband and wife come together. That's covenant. This was Ruth. Dedicating her life, not just to Naomi, but changing over her affections from her idols and accepting the God of the Jews as her God and her Lord and her savior.
[00:02:42] Carla: So they go, um, back to Bethlehem and they're poor. They are poor. They have nothing. They have no inheritance. They have nothing. And the welfare system that was given by God to Moses through the law said that during the [00:03:00] harvest time, the poor could go into the fields and glean the leavings, that they could go and glean.
[00:03:08] Carla: And this was a way that the poor could get food and be fed. Now, the historical definition of gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops, so the regular reapers would go into the field to collect the crops, but they were to leave the corners of the field untouched and anything that was dropped or left behind or deemed not good enough for harvest by the, the land owner.
[00:03:39] Carla: Would then be gleaned by the poverty stricken. This was hard, lowly work. This was hard work. You would be out there trying to find scraps in the sun, days, days, weeks, weeks, months, months. This was lowly work. This was showing everyone that [00:04:00] I am poor. I have no inheritance. I have nothing. This was hard, lonely work.
[00:04:08] Carla: And Ruth told Naomi, I'm gonna go glean and see where I find favor. And she came upon Boaz's field. Boaz is, how do you pluralize? Boaz, Boaz's. Field, and he had heard good reports about her, how she had, um, converted to the God of Israel and was trying to take care of Naomi. And, uh, she found favor in his eyes and Boaz is a type of Christ.
[00:04:39] Carla: He was one of her kinsmen redeemer, which means he was a kinsman and had the opportunity to buy back the inheritance. For Naomi and Ruth and Mary Ruth and restore the family. And what a beautiful picture Boaz is of Christ. Jesus came as man, our [00:05:00] kinsman and redeemed us. He paid the price for us, the ransom.
[00:05:07] Carla: on the cross. And it's a beautiful picture of Christ and his redemption. And Jesus is a better Boaz, right? Because his kinsmen redemption was for all of us for eternity to be reconciled with Christ. But here's one thing that stood out to me. Um, Ruth goes back with, after her first day of gleaning, having sat on favor with Boaz, invited back, told, stay in my field, you'll be protected.
[00:05:34] Carla: And Naomi is surprised by how much she brings back. And she's like, where were you? Where did you get this? And Ruth, unaware, says, oh, Boaz. And Naomi's like, oh, that's good. Stay there. He is one of our kinsmen redeemers. Now, I don't know how familiar Ruth would've been with the Jewish law and the Jewish, um, traditions, but she, she stayed with Boas.
[00:05:59] Carla: But here's the [00:06:00] thing that caught me today. Here's the thing, I'm gonna read it to you, Ruth 2 23. So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean into the end of the barley harvest, end of the wheat harvest, and dwelt with her mother-in-law. Okay, there is something in there for us, guys. Ruth came across her Kingsman redeemer, her rescuer, but was she rescued right away?
[00:06:25] Carla: She gleaned until the end of the barley harvest and of the wheat harvest. Those harvests is April, May, June. This was months. This is day after day doing this hard, lowly work. If Boaz was actually going to redeem her, not knowing if there was going to be any rescue, just understanding she had favor in her circumstance, but her circumstance was not changing.
[00:06:50] Carla: And she still showed up day after day gleaming. She did not give up. She did not sit back and say, there's my [00:07:00] rescuer. Come rescue me. She kept doing work, even when she was not sure of when or if the rescue would come. She kept showing up to glean. She kept showing up to do the hard, lowly work. Guys, this is a message for us.
[00:07:17] Carla: Whatever your circumstances, whatever your struggle is right now, we need to keep gleaning in the hard season. In the hard season, God was working on her behalf. She couldn't see it necessarily. He was working on her behalf, even by the fact that she ended up not knowingly, just seemingly by, by coincidence on Boaz's field.
[00:07:41] Carla: No coincidences, by the way. God was working. I believe that while she was gleaning, she was being transformed into who she needed to be. To become Boaz's wife. While she was gleaning, Naomi's faith was being restored. While she was [00:08:00] gleaning, God was doing a work in Boaz's heart. There is something happening during our hard work, our low seasons.
[00:08:10] Carla: But we have to keep working. Paul tells us in Galatians, do not stop doing what is good, because if you continue, you will reap the harvest. You won't just be gleaning for scraps. Our reward is in heaven. We have a rescuer. We have a Kingsman Redeemer. We have Jesus. He is our rescuer. He is our hope. He is our assurance.
[00:08:34] Carla: He is our banner. He is our strong tower. He is our portion. He is everything we need. But he operates in time and space that is above our understanding. Do not give up in the position that you have right now. Do not stop doing the hard work. Don't stop praying the prayers. [00:09:00] Don't stop forgiving. The unforgivable.
[00:09:04] Carla: Don't stop rooting your identity in Christ. Don't stop meeting with Jesus every day, even if you feel like he's being silent. Don't stop surrendering. Don't stop submitting. Don't stop laying down your will. Don't stop doing the things that seem lowly and beneath you. Put your ego aside. Put your bitterness aside.
[00:09:27] Carla: Ruth had all reason to be bitter. Ruth had all reason to be depressed. Ruth had all the reasons she lost her husband. She was in a foreign land. She was the lowest, lowest of the low. She was a woman without a man's protection and she was a mobile woman. She was viewed as the lowest of the low, but in her humility, she kept showing up day after day to the field to glean, not knowing.
[00:09:59] Carla: That God [00:10:00] was working, but we know we have the word, we have the truth. We have been given the gift of the Bible. We know how the story ends up. We know God's character, and yet we can be so quick to give up our gleaning, to give up our hard work, to resent. Our hard work, you know, in Jewish culture, when they read Proverbs 31 about the virtuous woman, the Proverbs 31 woman, they often read Ruth right after Ruth was a picture of the Proverbs 31 woman.
[00:10:43] Carla: She was virtuous. She was hardworking. She did what needed to be done and didn't do it with a sour heart. God is looking at our hearts. God knew the heart of Ruth. Ruth was humble. Ruth [00:11:00] was thankful. Ruth was seeing the blessing even in the hard situations. Ruth was obedient to wise counsel. You see that as the story goes on and she follows Naomi's direction direction that Naomi had based on her own Holy Spirit leading Ruth was teachable, which was coachable.
[00:11:22] Carla: Reach was humble. Ruth was hardworking. That's what we need to be. In the tough spot, in the place of our poverty, whatever our poverty is, our spiritual poverty, maybe it's physical poverty, maybe you battle mental illness like I do, maybe you're having a financially hard time, maybe your relationships are falling apart.
[00:11:45] Carla: Don't stop gleaning, show up every day. The rescue is coming, it is promised to you, but God is doing a work in you in the meantime. [00:12:00] God is doing a work in you in the meantime. So you can be all that he has created you to be when your rescue comes. Look for the blessing, look for the favor in the hard time.
[00:12:13] Carla: Ruth saw the favor. Ruth saw the blessing, even though she remained in the position of poverty, even though she remained in the position of being the lowest of the low, even though she remained in a position where she had to glean and do demeaning work, she saw the favor and she did it with a grateful heart.
[00:12:33] Carla: Don't stop gleaning. Your rescue is coming, but God is doing something in you and through you in the process if you allow him.
[00:12:47] Carla: Keep a humble heart. Keep a joyful spirit. Look for gratitude. You are blessed in this moment with favor. It is covering you, even in the tough spot. My affirming truth for [00:13:00] you today is I will not stop gleaning and trust God is working on my behalf. I will not stop doing the hard work. I will not stop showing up because I trust my God is working on my behalf because he has said that he would and he is a God that does not lie.
[00:13:19] Carla: And we look at 2nd Chronicles 15 7, but as for you, be strong and do not give up for your work will be rewarded. This was a, uh, a prophecy that came to the people of Israel after they had been in a time of idolatry and we're turning away from that and turning back to God. And there was hard work in turning back to God and tearing down idols and coming to repentance.
[00:13:47] Carla: Thanks. And coming to be restored and the word was be strong and do not give up in the work that is pleasing to the Lord for your work will be rewarded. Your rescue is coming. Do not [00:14:00] stop gleaning in this hard season Trust that God is working on your behalf friend because he is I'll talk to you next time
[00:14:09] Carla: Thanks for joining me today. I hope we're already friends on social media But for not come find me on Instagram @ carlaarges or at affirming truths Can't wait to see you back here next week. Bye friend.