The God Who Sees

She gave this name {Ishmael} to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” 1 Genesis 16:13.

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt like no one saw you?  A place where you no longer think you have a friend left in the world.  It is a place where you have to make life altering decisions on your own when there is no one else left around.  This was Hagar in the book of Genesis.  She had a difficult life from the beginning as a slave girl.  Then comes a day that she is told to go sleep with her “bosses” husband!  Imagine the look on her face at that moment.  Her heart must have caved in.  She had absolutely no say in the matter.  She had nowhere to go and nowhere to turn.  Reluctantly she obeys and ends up pregnant.  Poor Hagar!  For the first time that she meets a man it is not even one that she loves.   Then to make matters worse she becomes hated for bearing this child and gets mistreated.  What did Hagar do wrong?  Absolutely nothing!  She just obeyed her orders, done her due diligence and then suffers for it.  How many of us been in this situation.  A lot of us end up in places where we have to submit to the very thing that is actually crushing us.  At this point in life we could all use a friend.  Someone to help us and support us along the way. 

What is a friend?  A friend is a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard; a person who gives assistance; a supporter; a person who is in good terms with another; a person who is not hostile.  God makes for the most exceptional friend.  He is always attached to us and holds us in high regard.  He will always be in good terms with us because He loves us.  That is why He sent His Son Jesus to us.   God sees our every need.  He hears our every cry.  He sees that we need help and support because life is not easy.  We find ourselves in positions where we want to escape.

Hagar needed to escape.  How quickly does God run after her to ask her “Where in the world did she think she was going?”  She knew she had nowhere to go carrying a child.  Who was going to care for her in this stage?  God did!  But only if she went back to the place she escaped from.  How painful that must have been for her.  Her heart must have caved in after hearing that she had to go back and to submit to the woman that was causing her torment.  But God did send her off with a promise indeed. It was enough for her to continue.  He told her that He would bless her offspring Ishmael.  She left with a peace in her heart and names the child “the one who sees me”.  She went from a place of being alone to a place of having an encounter with God.

What would you do if you were in a situation that you came to hate? Many times in life we feel abandoned, forgotten, tormented, cheated, frustrated and hurt.  But it is in these very places that God meets us and gives us the strength to endure through it.  Not all of our problems go away for us but we gain the strength to endure through it all.

For the life of Hagar, she eventually gets sent away from her situation.   In Genesis 21:8-19, this becomes the turning point in her life because now Hagar is asked to exit with her son and has no idea what to do.  This is the breaking point for her.  We have all been here.  A place where uncontrollable tears become our food.  A place where pain is demanding to be felt.  But as Hagar and the boy are pouring out their hearts and God is hearing.  God heard the boy cry!  He heard the promise cry out.  So many times we are focused on the problem and not the promise.  God is concerned about the promise.  He only speaks to the promise.  All we have to do is take our promise in the hand and move forward with faith.    Despite what we think, how we are feeling and what we really want in life.  Situations don’t always go in our favor.  Sometimes we have to let go of our dreams in order to obtain our divine destiny.  That is why it hurts so much because we want the dream more than anything else but it is not what God has destined for us.  God will not allow us to destroy His plan for it shall always be fulfilled.   We must learn to embrace the promise—even in the painful days.  God will give you the peace you need when you focus everything on him.

God did honor Hagar in this story.  He removed her from that situation.  She ended up living somewhere else with Ismael as they found refuge in a place set aside just for them.  It was in this new place that they built a family out of God’s promise.  Learn to wait on the timing of God.  If it is meant to be a part of His plan it will happen for you. Surrender all into the hands of God and then you will experience all that He made perfect for you.

He is the God who sees!