FEAST: 30 Days of Real Truth for Real LifeSample

Day 7: Hagar—Seen

Snack

1. Like He did with Hagar, God can find you in the wilderness.

2. You are seen—God knows your name.

3. Don’t despise the wilderness, sometimes it changes everything.

Appetiser

Have your wilderness seasons ever left you feeling as though God has forgotten about you?

Main Course

Hagar’s story is seen in passages throughout the book of Genesis. She’s not the central character and potentially someone whom one might overlook. So let’s put a bit of context to this.

Hagar was Sarai’s (Abram’s wife) maidservant. Sarai thought that she was unable to bear children, despite the fact that God had promised Abram (her husband) back in chapter 15 that his very own son would be his heir. Sarai sends her to sleep with Abram, as she thought she might obtain children by her. Hagar conceives and this of course does not go down well with Sarai.

"The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered" (Genesis 16:7-8 NIV).

I love these verses. Firstly, God finds Hagar in the wilderness. Imagine Hagar’s heart at this point—made to sleep with her mistress’s husband and then mistreated to the point of causing her to flee. (Literal AND emotional wilderness.) She’s at her breaking point, no doubt. But God finds her there. Secondly, God calls her by name.Prior to this, Hagar has been referred to as a servant. Here, in this wilderness, God reminds her that He knows her name.

The wilderness encounter changed things for Hagar. She was no longer just a maidservant, she was a maidservant seen and known by God. Remember, when our geographic location or even our circumstances don’t change, our right standing in Christ changes everything.

Even when we’re in the wilderness, God has not forsaken us. In fact, it is there, at the end of ourselves, where we may truly meet with Him.