² And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³ So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz who was from the clan of Elimelek.
 
                                                                                    -Ruth 2:2-3
 
Ruth goes out to scrounge for grain for her and her mother-in-law by gleaning behind the harvesters in a field.
 
“As it turned out,” she was working in a field belonging to a guy named Boaz, who was in the same clan as Naomi’s deceased husband.  
 
If you live a life of surrender and genuine, integrated faith, what happens over time is you end up with any number of ‘as it turned out’ kind of experiences.  The world calls them coincidences, some religions chalk it up to an impersonal force called fate, the Judeo-Christian world view ascribes it to the almighty gracious work of a faithful and very personal God.
 
“As it turns out,” God is at work in this bleak story.  As it turns out, God hasn’t forgotten about Ruth or Naomi. As it turns out, God is still good even when the circumstances are bad. As it turns out, God’s hand is guiding this story, even though to the people involved it feels like they’re just mucking around in the dark.
 
Today, as it turns out, no matter what’s happening in your life right now God is still on the throne.  And today, as it turns out, God is working on your behalf.  Really.
 
So go about your day with the freedom that comes from knowing that whether you experience it concretely today or not, you can trust that God is at work to tee up some sort of “as it turned out” experiences for you in the near or distant future.
 
If you’re in a difficult season today, pray for the faith to trust that God is setting up an “as it turned out” experience for you. If you’re not, take just a few minutes to catalogue your “as it turned out” experiences in the past. Spend some time thanking God for how he’s worked on your behalf in the past.