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We all experience the suffering of loss:

1. The loss may the loss of someone we love or care about, through a break up, divorce, death, or simply moving away.
2. The loss may the loss of a job, business, or reputation. 
3. The loss may the loss of the loss of our home, car, or possessions.
4. The loss may the loss of our health or mobility.
5. The loss may also be the loss of our identity.

    In the book of Ruth, there is a story of a young Jewish woman by the name of Naomi (her name means "my delight" ... a name that should make someone feel accepted). She fell in love with Elimelech and they got married. They lived in Bethlehemjudah and life is good. Everything seems to be going well. They also had two sons. Then a famine came, not just in their town, but in the land of Israel. Because of the famine, her husband took her and her two sons to the foreign pagan country of Moab to live. Surely, it was a difficult time in the life of a mother and two small boys. It is always difficult for a family to move, but even more difficult when has not no choice but to move and be displaced.

    While Naomi was there in Moab, already rooted out of her home and in a foreign country, Naomi's dear husband also died. She, as a young woman, lost the love of her youth. It must have been a very painful experience. What more could go totally wrong?

    Now, she is left with her two sons to raise by herself. It is interesting to note the names of the two boys. One was named "Mahlon" meaning "sick", and the other was named "Chil-i-on" meaning "pining" which means “to waste away”. There probably developed a co-dependent relationship between Naomi and her two sickly young sons. It is always difficult to see those who we really love become sick and then just waste away. Strangely enough, her two sons did however live long enough to marry Moabite women which also may have been a grave disappointment to a Jewish mother, and then both of Naomi's sons died. Now, Naomi was left all alone except for her two Moabite daughters-in-laws. She felt that she must return to the roots of her Jewish forefathers in Israel. In Naomi's distress, she encouraged her two daughters-in-law to stay in the country of Moab and remarry while she went back to Israel to her kinsman. She told her two daughters-in-law that she was too old to have any more sons for them to marry. She must have thought that her relatives would somehow fill some of the loss in her life. At least, she would be in the land where she grew up. Her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, said that they would stay with her. However, Naomi insisted that the two young women stay and remarry while she when back to Israel. Orpah reluctantly gave Naomi a kiss and stayed in Moab, but Ruth said, "Don't ask me to leave you. I will not leave you, but go where you go, live where you live, worship your God, and be buried where you are buried." (Ruth 1:6 paraphrased)

    Therefore, Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem and met Naomi's kinsman. Everyone came out to greet Naomi and said, "Is this Naomi?" However, Naomi said, "Call me not Naomi, call me Mara (meaning bitterness): for the Almighty had dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why call me ye Namoi (my delight), seeing the LORD hath testifed again me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?" (Ruth 1:21b-22).

    Now, I think that we all can relate to Naomi, if have suffered loss. Again, Naomi suffered The loss of her home, having to move and to leave all her kinsman because of a famine. She suffered the loss of the love of her life, her husband, and then suffered the loss of her two sons. Next, one of her daughters-in-law (Orpah) stayed behind (even though Naomi insisted on her doing so). She felt even that God had dealt unfairly with her. She felt empty. She felt that God was against her and had afflicted her.

    So maybe you can relate. Right?

    Was her life a total loss as she felt it was? Was God really against her? Was God really working good in the picture? What was the big picture? Can we possibly look at her suffering loss from a different perspective, possibly from God's view point?

Let us take a look from God's point of view:

1. God gave her the experience of knowing the love of a caring husband for a number of years.

2. God gave her the growing experience of raising two sons.

3. God saved her and her family from starving to death by leading them into the country of Moab.

4. God gave her the delightful experience of seeing her two sons marry before they died.

5. God gave her the grace to be a great influence upon her daughters-in-laws. Initially, both were willing to leave their own country and go to Bethlehem with their mother-in-law.

6. Naomi's influence upon Ruth was so great that she became determined to follow her no matter what and even to worship her God, (Yahweh).

7. God even used Ruth to provide food for her in Bethlehem.

8. She then became a counselor to Ruth (the young Moabite woman) which led a rich man, Boaz, a relative of Naomi to marry Ruth.

9. Ruth and Boaz had a son by the name of Obed, which Naomi later adopted as her own grandson which she helped nurse.

10. Obed grew up and had a son by the name of Jesse.

11 Jesse had a son by the name of David who became the king of Israel.

12. David also wrote the book of the Psalms and was in the lineage of Jesus.

13. Now, we have the God inspired book of Ruth as a part of Scripture and the story of Naomi in it.

14. This book of Ruth has been an encouragement to many who have suffered the loss of a family member.

…..... If the famine had not come and if there had not been the loss of Naomi's husband and two sons, the rest of the story would not have happened. Our Bible would be rather short. Jesus would not have been born and there would be no salvation today through Him today. GOD WAS AT WORK THROUGH THE WHOLE STORY!

    But what about Naomi's loss? How did God deal with that?

    In the midst of Naomi's loss, God gave her a faithful daughter-in-law, Ruth, to comfort and counsel. That counsel led Ruth to marry Boaz which ultimately gave her a grandson to love and care for.

    We should understand that we can not always see the big picture, especially when we are in midst of the pain of loss. However, we can trust that God is in it! This means we need to seek God and seek Him with all our heart, then we will discover, in time, His comfort. OUR Faith comes from the character and promises of God in His Word.

    *** Maybe through the death of a spouse, a child, a parent, or close friend, you are suffering loss today. God, through the death of that loved one, has you here today. I would not even be writing this article except I was to preach a memorial service for a Christians lady in our church. However, think about it for a just a minute, Where would you be today if you had not suffered that loss that you suffered?  You might be working, house cleaning, playing ball, swimming at the lake, maybe resting, or fishing.  However, God has brought you today. It was not something that you planned several weeks ago. I believe that God has a purpose in your reading this article. Again, it is no accident that we happened to be here today.

    Just maybe someone who is reading this article is lost on the inside, actually dead in your spirit. God has brought you to hear that God has a special plan for your life. God has brought you here because He has a plan for your life.

    Jeremiah recorded the Word of God: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end" (Jeremiah 29:11). God has a good plan and purpose for each of our lives no matter where we have been or what we have done and He is well able to fulfill that plan if we are willing to turn our lives over to Him as Lord. You may think and feel like your life is a total loss!  HOWEVER, it doesn't have to remain that way!

    Jesus, himself, said, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39). When there is a great loss, it is often a time that people begin to search for meaning in life. The Bible is a great place to begin to search. However, when we come to the Bible, we first discover some bad news.

1. The Bible says, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 16:25). We have all traveled down the road that promised us fame, pleasure, and fortune, but found it to be nothing more than a empty, dead end, street.

2. The Bible says, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). This means that no one, no matter who they are or what title they carry has lived a perfectly righteous life. You may be a child, mother, father, pastor, minister, or priest, but you have sinned.

3. The Bible says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The word translated “sinned” literally mean to miss the target. We have all shot our arrows at the target of doing what is right, but our arrows have fallen short. We have all disobeyed the laws of God. We may not have physically murdered anyone, but we have wished that someone didn't exist. Jesus said, it is what is in the heart that counts.

4. The Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). This is pointing a death down deep inside of us. It is a spiritual death. It is a death that everyone of us has experienced when we came to know the difference between right and wrong and chose to do wrong. If we have disobeyed God just one time we have broken His Law.

1. The Bible says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). This simply means that God wants to have a relationship with us, but in order that to take place, Jesus had to take the penalty for all our sins: past sins, present sins, and future sins. When Jesus died and shed his blood on the cross, he took all of our sins upon himself and even became sin for us that we might receive his righteousness. He died a very cruel death, his body with put into the grave, then he spent three days in Hades (what we would call hell), before he arose having victory over the powers of darkness.

2. Jesus said, “.... I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). We can repent of every sin that we have ever sinned and belong to the best church in town, but it will not save us. Jesus is the only way to the Father in Heaven. There is life only in Jesus.

3. The Bible says that we are saved solely by God's grace. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9). Grace is God's unmerited, unearned favor. We can go to church, help the poor, pray, be baptized, and live a pretty good life, but Jesus is the only way to Heaven. Doing good works saves no one! The Bible says that everything right thing that we might do to save ourselves is nothing more than very dirty underclothing to God.

4. The Bible says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10). The key word is “LORD”. It means to give your life to Jesus as your King, your Boss, your Owner. When I was nine years old, I simply gave my life to Jesus that was all that I knew to do.

5. Conclusion: The best illustration that I know of is that about 14 years ago, I was diagnosed with colon cancer. It had a death penalty attached to it. I grew up on a farm and learned to fix things, but here was something that I could not fix. I had to sign a consent form before the surgeon would operate. In essence, I had to put my life into the hands of a surgeon to remove the cancer that I might live. There is a cancer called sin, it carries a death penalty with it. We can't fix the problem ourselves, but there is a great physician whose name is Jesus. If we will give our life to him letting him become our LORD, he will operate on us and give us a new life.

Prayer:

Dear God, I recognize that I have disobeyed you and understand that is called sin. I also understand that the penalty for sin is death on the inside. However, I believe that your Son, Jesus, came to the earth, was born of the virgin, Mary, and live a perfectly righteous life. He then suffered and died on the cross taking the full penalty all my sin upon himself. He was buried, spent three days in Hades, and arose the third day, that he might offer eternal life in Heaven to me. Therefore, I chose today to give my life to you Jesus as my Lord and my Saviour and ask that by your Spirit, that you come and live inside of me and make me a new person on the inside. Amen.

If this was the first time that you prayed and gave your life to Jesus as your Lord, I am going to ask you to do something bold by the ability that God will give you. As soon as you can, go to someone and boldly tell them that you prayed and gave your life to Jesus. If you will do this you will encourage and comfort someone else.

More Good News:

The Holy Spirit does not leave us as orphans. "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you"  (John 14:18).  He will teach us what we need to know and even reminds us of what God has already taught us. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you"  (John 14:26).  The Holy Spirit will show us more of what Jesus has done for us. "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.  All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you"  (John 16:14-15).

God gives us GRACE to receive His comfort, but that comfort is not just for ourselves. Therefore, since God is working in the big picture and is for each of us, we should begin to look beyond ourselves to see what God has set before us and get in on what God is doing. Paul writes, “Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God (II Corinthians 1:4).God is also the FATHER OF MERCIES. Mercy is receiving less negative consequences than we deserve.  It is also associated with His GRACE which is receiving good things from God when we don't even deserve them. He is the GOD OF ALL COMFORT. He is the very source of true comfort. He gives us comfort when no one else can! He gives the Comforter, the very person of the Holy Spirit, to His children.

Paul also wrote, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). This tells us that God will work even what we consider to be the very worse situation together for our good and His glory.

God worked all the loss the life of Naomi together for good, He did it with Job (Job 42:10), He did it with Elijah (I Kings 19:13-17), and He can do it with you and me.