Ruth 1:19-21

So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 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.” - Ruth 1:19-21

Dear Lord, 

Trouble is hard to take; especially when I know the idea of it had to pass before your throne.  That means you knew and you allowed it to follow me.  Naomi is an honest, gritty believer.  She was deeply disappointed with you and how you ran her life.  But she felt she could say it as she felt it.  She knew you could take it and would not abandon her.  She trusted that beneath your discipline was a loving plan to make her life have meaning and positive purpose.  So, she gritted her teeth and told her townspeople exactly what was happening.  You had let her husband and sons die long before she thought it necessary.  In her transparent admission that you had dealt her the lowest cards in the deck, she had faith that you were her Savior God.  Lord, give me the same tenacious faith that trusts you even through gritted teeth.  Help me see the cross of your Son when everything below it is mire.  Make me a man of faith even when I am hurting.  Do not let me go just because I complain.  

AMEN

Pastor Don Patterson

God loves us even when we stomp away to our bedroom and slam the door.