“…I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants,

·      Trust is confidence in the reliability of God.

·      Hope is the expectation of God’s goodness.

Hope Is …

(1) BIGGER than your troubles

v1, “In the days when the judges ruled in Israel, a severe famine came upon the land.”

Judges 21:25, “In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.”

Job 5:7, “People are born for trouble as readily as sparks fly up from a fire.” 

(See Romans 8:35-39… nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.)

 (2) BETTER than your history

v1b. “So a man from Bethlehem in Judah left his home and went to live in the country of Moab.”

The problem of Moab: (see Genesis 19, Numbers 22-25)

Isaiah 40:31 (NIV), “But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

  (3) BEYOND anything you can imagine

v5b, “This left Naomi alone, without her two sons or her husband.”

v6, “Then Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had blessed his people in Judah by giving them good crops again.”

See Ruth 4:14-17.

 Ephesians 3:20, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”