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Day 5: When the Future Feels Hopeless
Scripture:
12 Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, 13 would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.”
~ Ruth 1:12-13
Hope is like oxygen to the Christian. Without it, we feel as if we are suffocating and grasping for breath. Even a little hope in God’s promises and character takes us a long way. Today, we see Naomi who has reached this point of hopelessness. She sees a future that is dark and cloudy, not bright. She sees graves and empty chairs, not family. She thinks of life as a threat without any protection or security. There is nothing left for her but darkness and a hopeless future.
You can even see the despair dripping from her words, “it is exceedingly bitter for me.” The last thing on her mind are God’s promises or any hope that her future could be better. She can’t even begin to imagine that God is writing a better future for her than she has in store. And this could be where you’re at today. It could be that you don’t see how it’s possible that the Lord has a good future for you. You’ve blown it. You’ve messed it up too bad. Your story is one that can’t be redeemed. These are all the lies that run through our minds.
The problem with hopelessness is that it blinds us to God’s work. It blinds us to the fact that God is always up to something, and He’s always up to something good. But in our hopelessness, we don’t see this. We start to believe what’s in front of us, what we can see, and it’s usually not much and not very good. Is this where you’re at? Are you blinded to the reality that God is up to something, and it’s always good? Are you convinced that darkness in front of you is your whole story? And if you are, how do you even begin to see? Well, I don’t have any special glasses for you. But what I do have is the character and promises of Jesus. And Jesus promises that He won’t quit on us and that He will see us safely to the end.
When hopelessness takes over, we stop interpreting life through God’s promises and start interpreting them through our pain. This is what Naomi did. She was convinced that God was against her because of her circumstances. Her circumstances become the narrator of her story. But please remember, your circumstances are not your narrator.
God is the narrator, and He does not write with a pen of hopelessness. He writes hope into our story. Now at this point, Naomi doesn’t see that yet. But there are hints already that God is doing it. After all, he has visited Bethlehem and it has again become the house of bread. So, if He has brought food to the famished, will He not also bring food to the spiritually famished? God’s hope shows up in our story through different ways and different times.
It might be in a verse that lands at the exact moment you need it, or with a friend who checks in when you feel forgotten. Or it’s the strength to get out of bed on a day you thought you couldn’t. Perhaps the softened heart where bitterness once lived, or in a small mercy that reminds you God still sees you and cares. Sometimes it comes with a moment of clarity in the fog of anxiety, or a conviction that pulls you back from sin.
None of these are accidents. None of those things are fate or chance. God has visited you with bread, even if it’s a breadcrumb of hope. Your dreams, like Naomi’s, may feel dead, or your future may feel like a blank page. Your heart may feel numb, tired, or ashamed. But we have a Redeemer greater than Boaz, Jesus, who restores futures that feel lost and breathes life into what feels dead. And He does this not so we can be healthy and wealthy, but so we can become more like Him.
Not so we can avoid grief, but so we can grieve with hope. Not so we can escape pain, but so we can trust the One who will one day make all things new. We don’t know all the details of the future God has for you. But we do know this: His ending is sure, and His ending is better.
You see, Jesus is better than the future you’re afraid of. I know you don’t see what God is doing. I know you probably don’t understand yet how anything good can come out of it. But can you believe that Jesus is already in your tomorrow, filling it with the mercy and grace you need? You may not have tasted them yet, but you will when you get to them. Just like the manna that came in the wilderness, His grace will be there waiting, just as fresh as ever.
You don’t need to understand the future. You have something better. You have the One who planned the future holding you securely. And because He is greater than your future, and He is better than your future, you have nothing to fear.
Pastor Josh Gerber
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