Knowing God October 3, 2024 issue
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“When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.” (Ruth 1:18, KJV)
She was steadfastly minded. She was determined, resolute, firm. Ruth is a remarkable person who demonstrated what surely is one of our most urgently needed character qualities. Ruth’s resolution so moved her mother-in-law Naomi that Naomi simply left off speaking to her ever again about going back to Moab. Ruth’s resolution changed the future for good.
God’s Word holds in the highest regard others who have demonstrated the godly attribute of holy determination. The Scriptures tell us that Daniel “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat.” (Daniel 1:8). Jesus, Luke tells us, “steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem” when the time was come. (Luke 9:57) No power hatched in hell can stop God’s mighty purposes from being fulfilled when even one of His children chooses to be steadfastly minded for the purpose of obedience to Him. God help us to be such people in these last days.
He was called farm boy and mountain boy. He had no friends at the West Point Military Academy and almost no chance of graduating. Yet, there probably has never been a cadet with more determination to succeed than Tom Jackson, later known as Stonewall. He had more to overcome than most. His childhood, due to becoming an orphan, was the saddest period of his life; so sad in fact that as an adult he could not speak about it. Yet, he found hope through faith in the Lord Jesus and became a devout Christian. Even so, his life was difficult in the extreme. Lieutenant Daniel Marsh Frost, Jackson’s instructor in the theory and practice of artillery, tells this story: It became my duty as artillery instructor to “set him up” at the gun, a duty I found very difficult to perform because he was saw-boned, still jointed, and totally devoid of all grace and motion…At the word “Load” he would go all to pieces as it were. Over and over again this was repeated until I lost patience with Jackson and exclaimed, ‘d–n it, Mr. Jackson, how often must I show you this simple movement!” Instantly, regretting my improper exclamation I cast my eyes from his feet to his face and became filled with remorse. The face revealed soul touching patience and suffering. No anger, impatience, only sorrow and suffering. It was a hot July day and the sun was blazing down upon us. The perspiration was rolling down his face and dropped from his chin – a mosquito had fastened upon his nose, and yet his hands hung by his sides.
Like Ruth, Daniel, Farm-boy Jackson, and above all, the Lord Jesus, God grant us the grace to be steadfast in mind, immovable in purpose, and unconquerable in faith for the glory of God. That is why we are here.