Desolate, Without Hope

I am currently reading through the Bible chronologically,
and I today I finished the four chapters of the book of
Ruth. I had something else in mind for the blog but it
will have to wait. I am undone.

This small book opens with Naomi, her husband
and her two sons moving from Bethlehem, the house
of bread, to Moab because the famine is great in
Israel, and they had no bread. Naomi lives there ten
years and in that ten years she loses her husband and
both of her sons--there are no grandchildren.

Naomi is left empty, desolate, without family, without
hope. Listen to her cry:

"Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty
has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and
the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me
Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the
Almighty has brought calamity upon me?"

Dearest reader, have you been there? Are you there
now? Everything you hold dear is gone. Has iron
entered your soul? Is all hope gone? Not a shred of
faith left? Do you feel that God has left you, or worse,
that God is against you? Then journey with me through
four short, but packed, chapters of Ruth.

Check out my home page:
http://www.hisvictoriousindwelling.com/index.php