Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.
—Ruth 1:16

Do you have a past you wish you had never lived? Are you ready to go where you've never gone and do what you've never done in order to start a new life? If so, you will like the story of Ruth.

Ruth was a Moabitess, born and raised in a highly dysfunctional culture filled with perversion, idol worship, disappointment, and death. Her first break came when she married into a Hebrew family that came to Moab from Bethlehem to escape a famine. After her father-in-law died, and then her husband, Ruth refused to be left behind when her mother-in-law, Naomi, decided to return to Bethlehem.

When presented with the opportunity to accompany Naomi to Bethlehem and begin a new life, Ruth said, basically, "I want no more of my past. I want something better. I'm going to leave my past and cleave to God's promises and what He has for me. I'm willing to go where I've never been to become the person I want to be."

Millions of people are where Ruth was in that moment. They each have a past they wish they could forget. What they experienced brought them nothing but pain and heartache and scars. They see nothing of value in the pasts they've lived.

Are you there? Are you prepared to deal with your past—to let go of old grudges, to release old anger and disappointments, and to ask God to heal you of old hurts? You cannot embrace the future if you cling to the past. You must let it go.

Ruth broke with her past and did exactly what Naomi told her, without necessarily understanding why. She made the right decisions, and her servant heart caused blessing to overtake her and Naomi in Bethlehem. God caused Boaz to come to Ruth, and she became his wife and the mother of a baby named Obed, who was the great-grandfather of David, an ancestor of Jesus. Ruth's destiny was to be in the bloodline of our Savior and Lord! Ruth—who was marred, scarred, and stained by her early environment—lived out her life in greatness!

What God did in the life of Ruth, He can do in your life. I don't know what your Moab is, but every person has something he or she must leave to follow Jesus completely. I don't know where your Bethlehem is or who you Boaz is, but God has a place and a purpose for you if you are willing to leave your past and walk into your future with Him.