The Altitude Of Our Attitude Series

The Altitude of our Attitude

Ruth 1:19

-Book of Ruth written during the time of Judges in Israel before there were kings. The message of the book focuses on Gods redemption through Christ even though it was written 1000 years before the birth of Christ

-The main character is Ruth who is a moabite woman who through several tough circumstances will find herself in the family tree of our Saviour found in the gospel of Matthew

Elimelelch along with his wife, Naomi and two sons moved to moab to survive a famine that had hit in the land of Israel. While there Elimelech died his two sons married moabite women and the two sons died leaving Naomi and her two daughter in laws alone

-Last week we looked at Christian commitment that we found in Ruth's words and actions towards Naomi. Remember she said where you go I will go, 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 will I be buried

This is all very powerful because in the whole scheme of things God is bringing Ruth to Israel to get married and become an ancestor to Christ. For Ruth it meant leaving her upbringing and the false god of Moab and staying with Naomi

In this passage today we see more of Gods plan coming about because Namoi and Ruth go back to the city of Bethlehem, the city in which a 1000 years later Christ is going to be born in. Think about where you were born. I spent some time tracing back some of my ancestors to find out that a few hundred years ago they lived in Germany. Had they not made that decision I might have been born in Germany. So again we see the hand of God working everything out to bring salvation to mankind.

-but something happens when they come into town. The scripture says the whole town is stirred by them in verse 19, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” If you have every gone back to your class reunion you can understand what they are saying. Life plus time and circumstances has a way of changing us.

People change. Some for the better some for the worse. It had only been 10 years since Naomi had left. Yet the change was noticeable enough that people noticed. She had left married, came back widowed, had left energized came back weary. Had come back with more gray hair and and wrinkles

but what I want to talk about today is the biggest change that was noticeable and that was her attitude.

See after the famine, the move, the death of her husband her sons marrying moabitie women and then the death of her sons and now the move back while in poverty Naomi has allowed life to make her bitter

she returns with a bad attitude about God and life

Attitude is defined as a mental position with regard to a fact or a state. In layman terms It is a mindset, the way we think or process the circumstances and situations that happen to us

look back at this passage. In verse 20 she says, “Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty.”

there is significance in the name change. The name Naomi in the Hebrew language means pleasant and the name Mara means Bitter.

In an airplane there is an instrument called an altimeter which determines the altitude of the plane. When the plane is climbing it has a nose high altitude when the aircraft is diving its called a nose down altitude. The performance of the plane is dependent on its altitude. It is necessary to change the altitude in order to change the performance.

Now hang with me for just a second, because in this passage of scripture we have two women. Naomi and Ruth both had gone through some bad times. Poverty, death of loved ones, moving.

The same things have happened to them but their attitudes are not the same. You can either have a good attitude or a bad attitude, but if you want to experience the abundant life, that Christ talked about, the joy that Paul wrote about it is dependent on the altitude of your attitude. Have you allowed life to make you bitter or better.

At this point Naomi is bitter at God. She says, “the ALMIGHTY has dealt Bitterly with me. The LORD has brought me back empty. The ALMIGHTY has brought Calamity upon me.

I believe that Christians should have good attitudes about life and God, unfortunately I have come across too many that either need to change the altitude of their attitude or change their names to Mara