God Redeems Our Pain

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading titled, God Redeems Our Pain, was written by Karen Huang. Olive watched her friend loading her dental equipment into his car. A fellow dentist, he'd bought the brand new supplies from her. Having her own practice had been Olive's dream for years, but when her son Kyle was born with cerebral palsy, she realized she had to stop working to care for him. If I had a million lifetimes, I'd make the same choice, my friend told me. But giving up dentistry was difficult. It was the death of a dream.

We often go through difficulties we can't understand. For Olive, it was the heartache of her child's unexpected medical condition and relinquishing her own ambitions. For Naomi, it was the heartache of losing her entire family.

In Ruth chapter 1, verse 21, she lamented, The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. But there was more to Naomi's story than what she could see. God didn't abandon her. He brought restoration by providing her with a grandson, Obed. Obed would not only carry on the name of Naomi's husband and son, but through him she would be a relative of an ancestor of Jesus himself. God redeemed Naomi's pain.

He also redeemed Olive's pain by helping her begin a ministry for children with neurological conditions. We may experience seasons of heartache, but we can trust that as we obey and follow God, He can redeem our pain. In His love and wisdom, He can make good come out of it. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Ruth chapter 2, verses 20 through 22, and chapter 4, verses 13 through 17. The Lord bless him, Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead. She added, That man is our close relative.

He is one of our guardian redeemers. Then Ruth the Moabite said, He even said to me, Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain. Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else's field you might be harmed.

And now I'll read chapter 4, verses 13 through 17. So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi, Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel. He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons has given him birth. Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, Naomi has a son and they named him Obed.

He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Let's pray. Heavenly father, thank you that we can trust you to redeem the painful stories of our life. When we experience broken dreams, comfort our hearts and remind us that you still have wonderful plans for us. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Joyce Dinkins and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.