Today we present a new message from Pastor Steven Furtick, which is titled “I’m still grieving. How do I move forward?”. The text for the message is from Ruth 2:3.
Pastor Furtick teaches in this message that when we are grieving, we have to do anything possible to move forward. There are seasons in your life where you come to realize that what you went through is leaving you, but Ruth still had to make a decision once she got to Bethlehem to go into the fields and begin to glean. In chapter 3, “She went into the field and began to glean. It says she started gleaning”, but it doesn’t say she ceased grieving. We should be motivated by Ruth’s behavior of moving forward while grieving. The point is gleaning in the grieving. What we think is going to happen is that when our harvest comes of what we ask God for, How many times do you think they prayed, “God, bring bread to Bethlehem”? What they didn’t know was that when the bread came back to Bethlehem, they would also be bringing their bitterness with them. Gleaning in the grieving We think, “God is going to bless me, and I’m going to feel better. From the biblical perspective, they would go through the field, and it was actually required by Levitical law, in Leviticus 19: “When you, the wealthy landowners, are gathering your crops, you have to leave a little on the edges, and if you don’t pick something through the first time, you don’t get to go back through and pick it up again. That’s for the gleaners.” Who are these gleaners? The gleaners consist of three categories. It’s the destitute or poor; it’s the widows; and it’s the foreigners. Ruth is all three. She is uniquely qualified, despite her disadvantages, to go through the field and glean. We keep thinking it takes stuff; it really doesn’t take for God to provide for us—you know, our educational level. But if you’re good at gleaning, it doesn’t mean you’ve stopped grieving.
There is no indication… I defy you to find it in the text. You can seek, and you won’t find… where Ruth danced and Naomi high-fived her. You won’t find anything in the text that suggests that the sadness has ceased. The bread was there, but so was the bitterness. The biggest blessing of your life might come at the worst time. You can have a great blessing at a horrible time.
Watch and learn from this sermon by Pastor Steven Furtick: I’m still grieving, How do I move forward?” and remember that we bring the latest messages from Elevation Church to you.
Video Credit: Steven Furtick