...You are the God who sees me, for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me." Genesis 16:13
Do you ever feel like God's forgotten about you or afflicted you?
I have to admit that sometimes I do. When I wake up stiff, sore and utterly unrested, I groan and whine, "Why?"
Today was one of those mornings. I'm in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains attending a Christian writer's conference. The six hour drive was exhausting, even though my friend, Andy, drove me.
Now, as I write, it feels like I'm on fire, even though it's cold here.
Fire. In the Old Testament, God is often represented by fire, but really . . . I don't want to feel like the fire is on me.
In the scripture above, the "she" is Hagar. Hagar is the Egyptian maidservant of Sarai, the wife of Abram. Sarai desperately wanted a family but she couldn't conceive. In those times, women were the chief family builders. Sarai was old and God hadn't given her any children, so she decided to build her family through Hagar. She gave Hagar to Abram as his new wife and told him to sleep with her. Abram doesn't argue (although he should have) and Hagar gets pregnant, and a little haughty.
Now, Sarai doesn't like this, so she blames Abram, complains to him and then physically abuses Hagar.
Poor Hagar.
She didn't ask to be in that terrible situation. She didn't ask to be a slave, pushed into a sexual union or be physically abused, so she ran away, into the desert. That's where God's angel finds her and speaks to her.
He says, "...the Lord has heard of your misery." (v.11)
Hagar responds, "You are the God who sees me. I have now seen the One who sees me."
It does us no good to question God and ask "Why?" He has a plan and the why may never be known to us on this side of Heaven. The one thing we can be sure of is that He's heard of our misery and He'll love us through it.
I'm praying for us today. God had big plans for Hagar and he's got big plans for us too!
The Cross of Christ: proof God doesn't always save us from our pain.
ReplyDeleteThe Cross of Christ: proof God can use anything to change the world.
Love you. I'm so sorry you are burdened with this cross of pain. Praying for your strength to endure and for Papa God to release you from it as well.
Thank you friend, I covet those prayers!
DeleteThank you.....definitely something I needed to hear at this time in my life. I do suffer from chronic pain and use my humor to get through it most of the time but it does become overwhelming and frustrating when I can not do all that I want to do.
ReplyDeleteYou're not alone friend. We need to fight daily against frustration but oh, is it exhausting! I'll be praying God gives you the strength to endure.
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