When Favor Finds You

When Favor Finds You: Ruth’s Story and Yours
The book of Ruth is tiny—just four chapters, tucked quietly into the Old Testament like a one-stoplight town on a long highway. Easy to skip. But if you look closely, it carries a massive message:

You are not limited by how your story started.

Ruth’s life begins in all the things we’d rather avoid talking about—brokenness, sin, dysfunction, generational trauma. She’s from Moab, a nation born out of incest and compromise. Her people worship idols, practice dark rituals, and live outside God’s covenant.
She is:

• From the wrong place
• From the wrong background
• Raised in the wrong religion

Yet from Ruth’s family line comes Jesse, then David, and eventually Jesus Christ Himself.
God takes a woman from a messy, disqualified background and literally weaves the Savior of the world through her story.

When Favor Finds You
In Ruth 2, she’s sitting at a table eating with Boaz and his workers—the men who own and work the field she’s gleaning in. By culture and religion, she shouldn’t even be there.
She says, “I have found favor,” but the deeper sense of the phrase is:

“Favor has found me.”

That’s huge.
We like to say, “I found God” or “I found favor,” but the truth is:

• You were lost.
• He came to you.
• He held on to you when you didn’t have the strength to hold on to Him.

You didn’t climb your way up to God. He stepped down into your pit.

Handfuls on Purpose
Boaz then instructs his workers:

• Don’t just let Ruth pick up leftovers.
• Drop extra grain on purpose where she’s gathering.
• Don’t rebuke her—and even protect her as she collects.

The old King James phrase is beautiful:

“Handfuls on purpose.”

That’s a picture of how God treats you.
He:

• Goes ahead of you.
• Arranges things before you arrive.
• Leaves blessings in your path that you didn’t work for.
• Guards you as you walk into what He’s already prepared.

You don’t earn that kind of favor.
You walk into it.
What Favor Really Is
If you want a simple definition:

Favor = Divine Advantage.

It’s when God:

• Opens doors you’re not “qualified” for
• Elevates you beyond your background
• Gives you opportunities you didn’t deserve

Is it “fair”? No. That’s why it’s favor.
Ruth had:

• The wrong nation
• The wrong religion
• The wrong resume

But she had the right God. And His favor found her.

When Favor Feels Like Disruption
Here’s the part that surprises us:
We pray for favor, and then everything seems to fall apart.
Naomi’s family lives in Bethlehem—“the house of bread”—and a famine hits. They move to Moab. Her husband dies. Her sons die. On the surface, it looks like disaster after disaster.
But behind it all, God is moving people and pieces so Ruth’s life will be woven into the line of Jesus.
Sometimes:

• The job loss
• The breakup
• The closed door
• The move you didn’t want

…aren’t proof that God has abandoned you. They may be proof that He is setting you up.

Anything new disrupts the old.
Anything better disrupts the average.

You might feel like you’re just “gleaning scraps” right now—barely getting by spiritually, emotionally, or financially. But Ruth shows us something powerful:
She starts picking up leftovers in a field.
She ends up owning the field—because Boaz puts a ring on her finger.
In Christ, that’s your story too.

You were the outsider, picking up scraps.
Now you are:

• A child of God
• A joint heir with Christ
• Covered in favor you didn’t earn

You may not see it yet, but favor has already found you—and God is far from finished writing your story.