Hope Against Hope

by Holly Swafford

“Who against hope believed in hope…”

Romans 4:18

She stood in the middle of a dry, dusty road, looking back at a city she had once called home. Two younger women were pleading with her to stay, but she took no heed to them. Her face was lined with a firmness that told them her mind was made up. She must leave, and they must stay and go on to see happier days without her.

As for herself, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do. Her only thought was of the burning ache of loss within her. She could not feel or think of anything else. As for the future, her only plans were to return to her homeland alone, live out her widowed days alone, and eventually, die there alone.

She pressed a cold kiss to the first young woman’s face. And even though tears were flowing from the younger girl's dark eyes, no trace of tears were found in the older woman’s. She turned to the other young woman. But I don’t have to go any further, because we know the rest of the story. Naomi didn’t leave alone. Ruth went with her and so did the God that she felt had abandoned her. 

In this Bible account, a young Moabite woman named Ruth displays the power of hope—a hope that changed hers and Naomi’s stories forever. Ruth clings to her mother-in-law and her God with a child-like loyalty and a fearless trust. Over time, this must have inspired something in the older woman. A hope that had lain dormant in her soul for a long time. But we don’t see that for a few chapters. All we see for a while is a hopelessly bitter Naomi.

She walks into town still beaten down and worn thin from the heartaches life had dealt her. She was bitter and wanted everyone to know it. “Call me Marah,” she had told them all. She would not have any more happy days - she felt sure of that. However, Ruth did not give up on hope that easily. Something about Ruth was different.

It was Ruth, with her calm, reassuring ways, that helped her settle comfortably into her old home again. It was Ruth that came in from the fields each evening humming some old familiar melody about trusting God. It was Ruth that smiled and laughed in spite of the loss they both shared. And every now and then, she could get Naomi to smile with her - despite Naomi’s determination to remain in her hopelessness. Ruth hoped on in the midst of death, famine, and extreme sorrow, and eventually becomes the reason Naomi can find hope again.

Hope is founded in trusting God.

This is what hope is. It’s a qualified faith that not only believes, but waits while believing. Believing that there will be good because God is good. Psalm 27:13 says, “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” Naomi almost gave up on hope because she no longer believed in the goodness of God. Instead of trusting God, she blamed Him.

It’s not always easy to believe in goodness or hope when we can’t see it. There are days when the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be eclipsed by a roadblock we can never overcome. Every bit of hope is shut out of sight. In fact, hope itself seems to be against us, threatening to dash our dreams to the ground and leave us with a heap of disappointment.

It takes a stronger faith to go on trusting in “the God of hope” (Romans 15:13) in times like these. When we can truly put our hope in God, we will find that hope is for us and no longer against us. When He is our hope, hope is always on our side. We can’t fear disappointment.

Ultimately, the reason Ruth could hope was that she had left the gods of her people and chose to make the God of Naomi her hope. 

Like Ruth, we must keep on going, believing that there will be good things again. Hope says, “I may not be able to smile now, but I will smile again.” It says, “I may not have a song now, but I will sing again.”

I can’t promise that your answer to prayer will come in the next five minutes or even the next week but I can promise that God will renew your hope if you will trust Him. He will restore your hope. You can find hope even when it seems like there’s a thousand reasons why you shouldn’t hope. You can hope against all those reasons.

Despite what she had thought, Naomi didn’t live out her days destitute of hope and die alone. The last thing we hear from her is that she’s become a first-time grandma. And she’s smiling at a sweet baby boy lying in her old thin arms as she sings to him an old tune about God’s faithfulness.

The object of her hopes had finally come to fruition. Yet still, hope didn’t end there. Naomi’s grandchild would find his place in the lineage of the Hope of all nations.

Because someone decided it was possible to hope again.

Like Naomi and Ruth, you will find that God has more in store for your life than you could ever imagine if you will just believe that God has good ahead. Trust in His goodness and you can have hope in fear, faithlessness, and famine. You can hope against all hopelessness.