Do You See Me? part 4
He will hear you
Her son was named by God Himself: Ishmael – “God hears.” From this point on, every time she looked at her son, every time she would hear his voice, every time she washed his clothes, made him a lunch, played a game with him, watched him sleep, Hagar would forever know that GOD HEARS. God hears HER!
Yes, God hears. Even when we don’t realize it, He hears, and He has already taken action on our behalf. Hagar needed to know that she wasn’t alone. And the Angel of the Lord showed up just when she was at her most desperate. And this one encounter forever changed the way she looked at God.
13 Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?” 14 So that well was named Beer-lahai-roi (which means “well of the Living One who sees me”). It can still be found between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born (Genesis 16:13-15).
Good times, bad times, and the in-between times, God is watching over you. He’s not waiting to pounce on us, to catch us when we’re at our worst. He’s there watching for opportunities when He can show off for us, when He can say, “Hey, I’m right here with you! You’re not alone. You are NEVER alone because I am with you!” Is it any wonder that these were some of the last words Jesus spoke to His disciples? “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20 NLT).
Hagar’s is an Old Testament story, recorded thousands of years ago. But God doesn’t change. He is timeless. And He doesn’t play favorites. If God was there for Hagar, a slave from a foreign county who served at the whim of her master, if He heard her heart’s cry, if He saw her, He will do the same for us - for me, and for you.
Do you need to be seen? To be heard? God is with you! Jesus, God’s Son, came to earth, born as a baby, and His name is called Emmanuel, God with us! Yes, God is with you! So when you need to be seen and to be heard, just call out to Jesus. He will hear. He will see. And He is acting right now on your behalf to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).
