But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.”
—Ruth 1:16
If we want to follow the Lord and grow properly, we need to attach ourselves to someone like Naomi. Those who are younger have to recognize that some among them are more mature in the Lord and that the older ones’ God needs to become their God. If this is their realization, there is good reason to have hope for the younger generation.
When I was first saved, I had such an older one. I observed him and followed him. I learned much from that brother. He was the one who taught me how to groan before the Lord. Later, when I went to another district in Taipei, I contacted the leading brother there and told him, “Brother, I am moving here, and I need to be under someone and to learn from someone. I’d like to place myself under you.” I learned much from him as well.
Learn to follow and receive help from older ones with whom the Lord places you. We should also realize that it is not practical to follow someone who lives far away from us. We all need someone we can follow. My observation is that those who refuse to do so will struggle spiritually and may even become a source of difficulty.
Adapted from Ruth: Growth Unto Maturity, pages 23-24.
Tomorrow: “Following the Older Saints”