Naomi: Satisfaction Through Power

Well, welcome back to Identity Traps.

We're looking at nine ways we lose ourselves and the one way that Jesus makes us whole.

We all wanna know who we are, don't we? We wake up in this world and we wonder, "Who on earth am I? Who am I really?" And we have these deep identity aches for significance, to be valued and to matter.

For security, we wanna be safe and okay in the universe.

We, we want satisfaction.

We wanna be happy and fulfilled.

And all of these deep longings in our hearts are like, they're like homing beacons that are pointing us back to the, to the beginning.

Because in the beginning, God made us in his own image, in his likeness, and we were made to know God as our good Father and to know ourselves as his beloved children.

But because of sin, we wake up estranged in this universe, separated from God, and so we find ourselves orphans in the universe.

And those deep identity needs that were meant for God don't go away.

They stay around, and so we look for them to be met in all the wrong places.

We look primarily to people power, and possessions in order to meet those deep soul needs.

So we have these three deep identity needs for significance, security, and satisfaction, and then we go to try to get those needs met in three different ways, people, power, or possessions, which gives us a total of nine different identity traps, nine ways we can lose ourselves.

And the answer to all of them is to center into the identity, the true identity that we have in Jesus Christ by grace through faith in Christ, that we are children of God.

Now, today, we're gonna look at Naomi's identity trap.

Naomi was looking for satisfaction through power, satisfaction through power.

And we meet Naomi in the Old Testament book of Ruth.

Ruth is actually Naomi's daughter-in-law.

And usually when we look at this book or this story, we focus in on this wonderful, beautiful love story that takes place between Ruth and Boaz, and Naomi sort of gets a little bit forgotten, I think.

She's sort of like a marginal character off on the sidelines, sort of a supporting actress.

But actually, you could argue it's actually the other way around, that Naomi is in fact the main character of the story, and that Ruth and Boaz are the supporting act.

Because after all, the story begins with Naomi, and it ends with Naomi, and the marriage between Ruth and Boaz is really a subplot in the greater story of God's loving kindness in Naomi's life.

And so this really is the story of how an orphan-hearted widow learns to live as a beloved child of God.

That's what this story really is.

So, so come back with me.