Christian Devotional – April 17, 2017

Naomi felt hopeless. As we start reading through Ruth, we see an amazing story of hopelessness that is given hope. Ruth 1:1-14, sets the stage and gives the background story. Naomi had everything, Naomi had a husband and she had two sons. This gave her status and it gave her position in this Society she lived in. Unfortunately there was a famine. As a result, her husband made a decision that the family could not sustain themselves there, so they moved. When they moved to the country of Moab, there Naomi’s Hope began to run it out. Her husband died. Her sons took wives that were not Israelites. And then, even her sons died. I’m sure she just wanted to forget everything about this horrible place of Moab and return back to Israel where she had once been happy. And that’s exactly what she intended to do. She wanted to leave her daughters in law and go back. Her daughters in law did not want her to leave and they tried to cling to her. But Naomi gave a great speech about how she had nothing left to offer. She was worthless, hopeless.

How often do we feel that way. We go through situations in our lives that we don’t understand and we don’t want to experience. We want to sit alone with no one around us and enjoy our pity party. We tell ourselves stories about how horrible everything is. And even though Naomi knew all about Kinsman redeemers, because she tells Ruth about them later in the book, she doesn’t mention anything about them now as a possibility of Hope. When we lose our way, we tell ourselves everything is dark and dreary and there’s no way out. However, we often forget the details of what we’ve been taught that can give us hope. Jesus Christ provides hope for all of us, and we will be able to see this through our study the Book of Ruth. Have you lost your way? Do you feel hopeless? There is hope!