🛤️ God Is Working While You Wait | Ruth 3 Devotional (7-Step QT)
7-Step QT Notes
1. 🙏 Quiet Time
Pause.
Take a deep breath.
Ask God to help you trust that He is working, even when you cannot see what He is doing.
2. 📅 May 6, 2026
Today’s passage reminds us:
Waiting is not wasted when God is working.
3. ✝️ Ruth 3:1-18
Naomi wisely seeks rest and security for Ruth by instructing her to go to Boaz, and Ruth obeys all that her mother-in-law commands. When Ruth asks Boaz to spread his wings over her as a redeemer, Boaz blesses her, honors her character, and promises to settle the matter according to what is right. Ruth returns with barley for Naomi, and Naomi tells her to wait, trusting that Boaz will not rest until the matter is resolved.
4. 📖 Key Verse
She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today” (v. 18).
5. 📝 Reflection
If we were to name the greatest pandemic in recent history, it would probably be the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, I was studying at a theological seminary in the United States while serving at an international church. In the beginning, as I heard news reports and conversations around me, many people seemed to regard it as something similar to the flu and did not take it too seriously. But from a certain point on, infections began to rise explosively, and a nationwide lockdown began.
I had never imagined that we would not be able to worship freely on Sundays in the United States. So when the government ordered all churches to close their doors, there was strong resistance both inside and outside the church. However, the church leadership eventually decided to respect the government’s decision and close the church. They also sent a group email to the ministry staff, instructing us to stay at home and wait.
As one week became two weeks, and one month became two months, the church closure continued much longer than expected. At first, it was frustrating, but as time went on, that frustration turned into fear. When many believers began to feel that online worship alone was not enough to overcome that fear, one worship song suddenly began to be sung powerfully throughout American churches. It was Leeland’s “Way Maker.”
In particular, the confession that God is still working even when we cannot see it became a deep and powerful comfort to many believers and churches whose in-person worship had stopped and whose future felt uncertain. Its influence spread around the world through social media, offering comfort even to those who did not believe in God, reaching beyond religion in a time of pandemic anxiety.
Today, Ruth goes down to Boaz’s threshing floor as Naomi instructed, lies down at his feet, and now she waits. Ruth, who had spent the whole day under the hot sun following the harvesters and gleaning grain, now sits quietly and waits. Why? Because from this point on, Boaz will not rest until the matter is settled.
Dear beloved saints, this is true for us as well. Today is a time to wait while trusting that God is at work. The God who keeps his people neither slumbers nor sleeps (cf. Psalm 121:4). Although Boaz is the one moving to fulfill his promise, we can see the faithfulness of God working through him (cf. Numbers 23:19). What seemed like a chance meeting with Boaz was evidence of God’s faithfulness, guiding Ruth from a foreign land to Bethlehem in Judah (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:24).
Therefore, today, let us praise our great God, who makes a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?
- Where in my life do I feel frustrated because I cannot see what God is doing?
- What is one faithful step God is calling me to take today?
- What is one thing I need to stop trying to control and entrust to God?
- How can I wait with faith instead of fear today?
- How does Ruth’s story remind me that God is working behind the scenes?
7. 🙏 Prayer
Lord, teach me to wait with faith.
When I cannot see what You are doing, help me remember that You are still working.
Give me courage to obey what You have called me to do.
Give me humility to trust You with what only You can do.
Strengthen my heart in seasons of uncertainty.
Help me rest in Your faithfulness.
You are the God who makes a way in the wilderness.
I trust You today.
Amen.
Scriptures
📖 (Ruth 3:1-18, ESV).
1 Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? 2 Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. 3 Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. 4 But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.” 5 And she replied, “All that you say I will do.” 6 So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. 7 And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. 8 At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! 9 He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” 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. 11 And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. 12 And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. 13 Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the LORD lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.” 14 So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” 15 And he said, “Bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out.” So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city. 16 And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did you fare, my daughter?” Then she told her all that the man had done for her, 17 saying, “These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, ‘You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law.’ ” 18 She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.”
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