I've tried to put in words what I learned and I'm not sure I'm expressing exactly what I mean. I pray that God speaks through my attempt at sharing wisdom from Him. At the Gathering, Brian Frost started a series on hope from the book of Ruth. In Ruth 1, Naomi experiences a famine, the death of her husband and the deaths of her two sons. Naomi said, "the Lord's hand has gone out against me!" (verse 13). She even changed her name from Naomi, which means pleasant, to Mara, which means bitter. Naomi also said, "I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me" (21). So here is Naomi, a woman who has suffered greatly and has become bitter - where is the hope in that? The hope comes at the end of the book in Ruth 4. Through Naomi's suffering came the line of David, through which Jesus Christ was born! (Ruth 4:13-22) And what great hope we have in him!
So while our sufferings will not result in the same greatness as the lineage of Jesus, we can be certain that through our sufferings God can do great things. We can rest in the knowledge that our suffering, even if we create our own, others impose suffering on us or whatever happens, does not hamper God's ultimate good or stop him from blessing us.The one thing Brian said that really struck me was, "Don't ever think that your past has put God in a shackle." (As if our actions could actually control God). We tend to look backwards and think of things that we wish God had done, instead of looking forward to what he will do. We think because this or that happened or God didn't do such and such, nothing good will happen in the future. But that is positively untrue.
When I think of what I've been through, I can know that there is hope!
The book of Ruth
