The Efficacy of Prayer in Ruth

Have you ever noticed the prayers that the different characters pray in the book of Ruth? In their book, Unceasing Kindness: A Biblical Theology of Ruth, Peter H.W. Lau and Gregory Goswell point us to John Berquist, who highlights “the efficacy of the many prayers in the book of Ruth.”[1] Specifically, they identify the prayers in Ruth 2:11–12, 2:20; 3:10, 4:11–12, and 4:14–15. They helpfully point out that these prayers help us see that God is providentially working in the background of Ruth’s narrative to bring about his desired end.[2]

Let’s draw from Lau and Goswell while looking at these prayers to see how God answers them.

 

The Prayers in Ruth

Naomi prays in Ruth 1:8–9 that God would show kindness and grant rest to her daughters-in-law:

But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

 

In Ruth 2:12, we see Boaz pray that God would reward Ruth for sticking by Naomi and seeking refuge in the Lord:

“The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!”

 

Naomi prays a blessing over Boaz for having regard for Ruth and for being a means of the Lord’s kindness in Ruth 2:19–20:

And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.”

 

Boaz prays another blessing over Ruth, once again, for seeking redemption through him, a kinsman redeemer in Ruth 3:10

And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.”

 

The elders and people at the gates of Bethlehem pray in Ruth 4:11–12 that the Lord would bless Ruth in marriage to Boaz with offspring, offspring that would lead to building up the house of Israel, and that Boaz would be renowned.

Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem,  and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.”

 

And finally, the town’s women bless the Lord for what he has done for Naomi, praying that her grandson, Obed, would lead to her complete restoration and redemption in Ruth 4:14–15.

Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

 

Prayers Answered

So here we have six prayers. And by the time the book of Ruth comes to a close, we see either explicitly or implicitly that God sovereignly answered each and every one of them. What is noteworthy is how God answers them.

First, after having prayed for the Lord to show kindness and grant rest for Ruth (1:8–9), we see Naomi initiate and orchestrate this very thing. Naomi first recognizes that in Boaz, a kinsman redeemer, God has provided a means of his kindness (Ruth 2:20). Therefore, she seeks rest for Ruth in that kindness by having her go to Boaz and request that he redeem her (Ruth 3:1–5). And, Boaz does. He marries Ruth, and Ruth experiences the kindness and rest of the Lord.

Second, after having prayed that the Lord would bless Ruth for seeking refuge under the wings of the Lord (Ruth 2:12), Boaz as a kinsman redeemer becomes the manifest wings of the Lord under whom Ruth takes refuge (Ruth 3:9).

Third, after praying that the Lord would bless Boaz who took notice of Ruth (Ruth 2:19–20), Naomi formulates a plan by which Ruth works a great kindness to not only her but the elder Boaz as well, who gets to marry the young, worthy Ruth and have children (Ruth 3:10; 4:13).

Fourth, after having prayed that Ruth would be blessed for her selfless kindness (Ruth 3:10), Boaz, once again as a redeemer, becomes a blessing for Ruth by redeeming her in marriage and providing children for her (Ruth 4:13).

Fifth, after all the people at the gates of the town pray for Ruth’s fertility and offspring to build up the house of Israel and the renown of Boaz (4:11–12), we see that through their marriage, Boaz and Ruth do produce offspring. And their offspring leads to the eventual birth of King David. And, the Lord ultimately covenants with David to build a house through him and to establish an everlasting kingdom over which David’s son will reign (Ruth 4:17–22; 2 Samuel 7:11–16). And, David, of course, give rise to Jesus the Messiah. Through Boaz’s offspring, then, an eternal house is built, and Boaz is ever remembered and renowned as not only the ancestor of King David but of the Messiah.

Sixth, after the women pray that Obed would become renown and that he would be a restorer of life for Naomi (Ruth 4:14–15), Obed goes on to become the grandfather of King David from whom the Messiah, Jesus, the one who restores all life, would come.

 

Lesson Learned

What’s the payoff here? Well, what we see is that in the story of Ruth, God delighted to use his people as a means to answer prayers and carry out his sovereign plans. And in Ruth, God often delighted to use the active faith of his people as a means to grant even their own prayer requests. We should be joyfully aware, then, that when we pray for God to advance his kingdom and his gospel, or when we pray for a co-worker, friend, or family member to come to know Christ, or when we pray that a suffering person would feel the comfort of God, the way God often delights to answer these prayers is through his Holy Spirit empowered people. He might even tap you to be the conduit of his grace, kindness, and blessing that answers the very prayer you were praying. Thus, we should pray with an expectation that God will not only work through our prayers, but that he will work through us to perhaps bring about some of the very things we pray. God delights to use the prayers of his people and their faithful actions as a means to carry out his sovereign plans.

 

Conclusion

We should recognize that our faithful praying and our faithful actions are not divorced from the sovereignty of God. Rather, the reality of God’s sovereignty and his delight to use his people as a means to advance his kingdom should bolster our prayer life and bolster our works of faith. Indeed, God has given us the Holy Spirit for this very reason, to carry on the work of Jesus through us. So let’s take our cues from the book of Ruth. Our prayers are effective, and this is by divine design. We should be a people of great faith who recognize that God delights to use us and our prayers for the advance of his glory.

 

[1] Peter H.W. Lau and Gregory Goswell, Unceasing Kindness: A Biblical Theology of Ruth, NSBT, ed. D. A. Carson (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2016), 15. FN Cf. Berquist 2008: 55.

[2] Lau and Goswell, Unceasing Kindness, 104. Here, Lau and Goswell point us to Gow (2000:176)—M.D. Gow, ‘Ruth’ in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, eds T.D. Alexander and B.S. Rosner (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 2000), 176–78.

Let Us Pray: Help in Prayer from D.A. Carson’s “Praying with Paul”

Praying can often be challenging in many ways. Simply finding time to pray once throughout the day can be elusive, let alone trying to find and establish a rhythm of prayer. We find our time in prayer comes in fits and starts and often looks random as opposed to regular and rhythmic. Then once we do start praying, we find that our mind tends to wonder to-and-fro to the point that we often can’t even remember what it is we’ve already prayed for or haven’t prayed for yet. What is the remedy? One very helpful and encouraging resource for building a regular rhythm of prayer in one’s life is D.A. Carson’s Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation.

The Introduction and first two chapters alone are a treasure trove of practical and biblical wisdom. First, Carson identifies the immense value of prayer. Then he offers some practical steps to help us start praying and to help us drown out the noise of everyday. And then he offers insight into building a biblical framework that helps guide our prayers. This practical wisdom helps eliminate distractions and the biblical wisdom informs and streamlines our prayers so that we pray in the Spirit, in accord with the heart of God as revealed by Scripture.

 

The Need for Prayer

We will not ever prioritize prayer or ever establish a rhythm of prayer in our lives if we do not recognize the immeasurable value of prayer. Carson notes, “The most urgent need of the church in the Western world is the need to pray.”[1] Carson acknowledges the swath of other areas the church needs to address and be prepared to respond to (Issues like overwhelming biblical illiteracy, cultural moral decay, the sexual revolution, the rise of cultural intolerance for those disagreeing with majority cultural virtues, unreached and unchurched people groups, etc.). However, he maintains “the one thing we most urgently need is a deeper knowledge of God. We need to know God better.”[2] And what is one of the primary ways in which we grow in our intimate knowledge of God? How do we know God better? We pray.

“One of the foundational steps in knowing God, and one of the basic demonstrations that we do know God is prayer—spiritual, persistent, biblically minded prayer.”[3]

So once we recognize its value, then the next natural step is to engage in the practice of prayer itself.

 

Practical Steps for Prayer

I once had a track coach who offered powerful wisdom for improving one’s running ability and speed. He could often be heard saying to us unfit, ailing, frustrated wannabe track stars, “Do you want to know how you become a better, faster runner? You run.” In chapter one, Carson makes much the same point with prayer. If we want to see improvement in our prayer lives, the first step is to pray. Or, to say it another way, we often struggle in prayer because we don’t pray regularly. Carson addresses this point specifically in this way, “Much praying is not done because we do not plan to pray.”[4] He then offers perhaps one of the simplest yet most profound pieces of wisdom with regard to prayer: “It is better to pray often with brevity than rarely but at length.”[5] The first step to improving our prayer life is to pray.

Carson then offers some simply practical steps to help eliminate distractions. Among these are: vocalizing prayers, praying through Scripture, making prayer lists to follow, journaling prayers, having a prayer partner, etc.[6] The takeaway from these suggestions is that there are practical steps we can plan to take along with good and wise practices that help focus our prayer efforts. Some will find different practices to be more beneficial than others. The key is finding what works for you.

 

Developing a Framework for Prayer

In chapter two, Carson urges us to develop a robust framework for our prayers. And as the title of his book suggests, he models this framework off of Paul’s prayers. Specifically, he models it off of Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 1:3–12. There, Carson points out that two elements make up Paul’s framework for his prayer:

  1. Thankfulness for signs of grace in the Thessalonians
  2. Confidence and hope in God’s coming reign at Christ’s return, and the justice it will bring

So, when we pray, we too should recognize the varying signs of grace that God has granted in us and our church family. And we make it a point to thank God for such gifts of grace. Such gifts could be increased faith, increased love, increased knowledge of God, growing maturity, perseverance in trials and suffering, people using their gifts to build up the body, confession and repentance, etc. When we recognize such graces, our instinct should be to thank God for them. As we develop this framework, we will likely find that we become more proficient at recognizing them. We will begin to identify God’s gifts of grace where before we might of looked right past them. So when we pray, we infuse our prayers with thankfulness for signs of divine grace.

And, when we pray, we pray with a view to and longing for the fullness of God’s kingdom that comes with the return of Jesus. We anticipate not just the joy that comes with his presence but also the justice that comes with the consummation of his kingdom. All wrongs will be made right. God will vindicate all his people, and God will exact retribution on all the enemies of him and his people. Saints have always fit their prayers into the reality that God will deliver vindication and justice for his people, whom he knows intimately. Think of David’s prayers to God in the Psalms (cf. Psalm 139, which we have recently memorized as a congregation). Therefore, when we pray, our prayers take on a tincture of hopefulness because Jesus will return. And so in our prayers we raise up this plea to heaven, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

 

Let Us Pray

We must recognize the value and need for prayer. With Carson’s help, we can find ways to plan for prayer and develop practices to eliminate distraction. And with Carson and Paul’s helps, we too can begin to develop and build a framework for our prayers that infuses them with thanksgiving and hope. When we pray, we commune with God, grow in our knowledge of him, thank him for his varied gifts of grace in our lives, and joyfully anticipate Christ’s return when he will right all wrongs. So the only thing left for us to do is to pray. So let us pray.

[1] D. A. Carson, Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Second. (Baker Academic, 2015), xi.

[2] Carson, Praying with Paul, xiii.

[3] Carson, Praying with Paul, xiii.

[4] Carson, Praying with Paul, 1.

[5] Carson, Praying with Paul, 2.

[6] Carson, Praying with Paul, 2–20.