When I'm mistreated, does God see me? When I'm hurting, does God see me? When I'm going through a difficult year, does God see me? Have you ever asked those questions? If you have, I have good news for you...God does in fact see you. In the bible, there is a story about two women - Sarah and Hagar. Sarah was Abraham's wife. Sarah and Abraham were given a promise that they would have a son. Ten years pass by, and that child hadn't come. Now, think about that for a moment. Infertility is a devastating thing. It's painful when month after month you are reminded that you aren't able to have a child or be a parent. I know this, because I have travelled this path. My daughter Thea came after a couple years of trying purposefully to have a child. Each month we would have hope and each month that hope would be dashed...and then the cycle would continue roughly another 24 times. It was a difficult road to travel, and it was short compared to how long other couples wait. I couldn't imagine waiting ten years. Sarah wonders if she heard right. She is beyond the years of bearing children. Maybe what God meant was they would be given a son. In now enters the second woman. Hagar, Sarah's servant. Sarah gives Hagar to Abraham and Hagar becomes pregnant. This makes things worse. Jealousy creeps into Sarah's heart. I've experienced this too. While my wife and I were trying and praying that God would give us a child, we would hear of others around us having babies. One lady, who we thought was incapable of having children due to medical reasons, became pregnant. It stung! I remember wondering, "God are you aware of us? Do you see what we are going through? Do you see how we are struggling?" Sarah is not just jealous, she is bitter. And she takes it out on Hagar. Hagar isn't entirely innocent, she in some way shows contempt towards Sarah. The result is that there was heated friction between these two women. And Sarah turns up the heat, treating Hagar harshly. And what does Hagar do? She runs. This doesn’t seem like a reasonable thing to do. There are many dangers that she could have faced. There would have been wild animals that could have attacked her. There would have been men who could have taken advantage of her. There would have been a beating hot sun and rugged terrain to endure. And she was pregnant at this time! She could have lost the baby. But she wants to escape the mistreatment, the hurt, the difficulty. She wants to put space between her and Sarah. But by doing so she runs from one hardship to another. She must have been thinking, "Does anyone see me? Does anyone care about what I am going through?" It is in that context we read these words: "The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the sping on the way to Shur" (Genesis 16:7) God sees her and finds her. He is concerned about Hagar and tells her to go back to Sarah (a very challenging thing to do) and encourages her that she will be blessed. After the dialogue between the angel of the LORD and Hagar we read: "So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, "You are a God of seeing",for she said, "Truly here I have seen him who looks after me" (Genesis 16:13) The Hebrew name she calls God is - El Roi - which is translated "The God who sees". God is not blind to what happens in our life. At no point does God ever think, "Wow, I didn't know that. I was unaware you were going through that in your life". He sees everything! There is a verse in Proverbs that reassures us of this. "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good”. (Proverbs 15:3) Notice three things in this verse:
God sees all things in all places at all times. Depending upon your relationship with God, that could either be very reassuring or very scary. As for me, I am comforted by these words. Especially when I bring to minds these words: “The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him..." (2 Chronicles 16:9, NLT) So back to the question we started with. Does anyone see what we are going through? You bet! God see's us. And for those who are committed to Him, His eyes are always watching us so that he may strengthen and keep us. And that is something that gives us hope.
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