God is faithful even in the toughest times of our lives. As the story of Ruth and Naomi comes to a conclusion in Ruth chapter 4, we see this vividly. Their story did not end in the bitterness of chapter 1, and for all who trust in Christ, neither does ours.

Redemption is a word we use a lot in our culture, particularly in books and movies. We talk about how a character earned their own redemption in a story. But what about when earning our own redemption isn’t so simple or is impossible? What about real life? For that we need a redeemer to step into our lives, one who is full of steadfast love and faithfulness. We need Jesus.

But what does it mean that Jesus is our redeemer? What does it look like for him to be full of steadfast love? These are some of the topics we discussed in this Sunday’s message through the story of Ruth chapter 3.

In my sophomore year of college, someone donated a Nintendo to the common area of our floor. One day, I stumbled upon this guy, Zack, playing my favorite game, Banjo Kazooie. I didn’t really know Zack and hadn’t ever really had a conversation with him, but he was playing my favorite video game, so I had to join him! As a result of that meeting, we became really good friends. I didn’t realize that by this seemingly chance meeting, God was giving me a wonderful friendship that would help sustain me in one of the worst crises of my life. Looking back, I know that day wasn’t random at all—it was God at work.

Many times, God works behind the scenes of our lives, even thru seemingly chance events. He is more involved than we realize, and more faithful than we give him credit for. This is what we talked about this past Sunday through the story of Ruth chapter 2, that God is faithful to us in our emptiness.

Have you ever felt empty? Where maybe you once felt full of happiness and hope. But now you feel more like a deflated balloon, pessimistic, broken, worn down? Maybe it feels like you’ve had the life sucked out of you. We might wonder, where is God in all of this? The Book of Ruth points us to a time of emptiness in the life of a woman named Naomi. What we find there is that God’s faithfulness pursues his people even in our emptiness. In it we witness the faithfulness of the LORD as he works behind the scenes of life to bring restoration and healing to his people in unexpected ways.

At the beginning of a new school year, you always start by going back to the basics. In math, might look like going over those basic facts of addition and subtraction. In language arts, might be going back over the steps to write a good essay. But what about in matters of faith? If we were to go back to the basics, what would we cover? We would cover the gospel—the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that redeems us and declares us right with God, not because of our own righteousness, but because of his. That’s what the passage this morning shows us. Many of us go through life wondering: Am I loveable? Am I valuable? Does my life have meaning? Have I messed up too much and gone too far to be accepted? Passages like this help to see just how loved and valuable we are to God as God’s love is poured out. The purpose and meaning of our lives is found in Jesus.

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We all know what it’s like to experience broken promises from people in life. But God is different. God never breaks his promises.

In this recent Sunday message, Ann reminded us to focus on the promise, not the problem. We don’t need to deny that we have problems in life, but we must focus on the cross and the truth that God keeps his promises. Problems are temporary but God’s promises are eternal. Through focusing on God’s promises, we can discover God’s peace even in the storms of life.

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What if Jesus has never once failed us? When something happens in my life that makes me feel like I can’t trust the Lord, what if he’s still faithfully working on my behalf, just in ways I can’t see? What if he’s simply asking us to depend on him in the midst of the unseen?

One thing we learned this Sunday was that the story of Joseph reminds us that God is always faithful, even in the hardest of times. We may not always understand why we go through the things we go through. But we can trust that God is faithful, that he has not failed us, that he is with us in them. So look to him, depend on him, cry out to him, and hold on to him.

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