Hagar: Seen By God

“Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.”—Genesis 16:13 NLT    

At some point, you might have had the embarrassing experience in which you see someone waving at you, and then you respond by waving back, only to figure out that the person wasn’t waving at you — they were waving at the person behind you! While this experience is not the most hurtful thing to happen to a person, it does hurt to feel unseen. And maybe you have felt unseen in a way that actually hurt at a much deeper level.

Hagar had a crisis moment. She felt used and rejected. She had been cast out by Sarai and ran into the wilderness to be alone — only to find out that she wasn’t alone!

Most people come to God during crisis. You didn’t just wake up one day and decided to go all in with Jesus. Looking back at your walk with God, you might say with confidence that he used circumstances in your life to point to himself and draw you to that beautiful place of surrender.
Only God can meet our need. Oftentimes we expect people to meet our deepest needs, and then we become resentful at people for not meeting those needs. But the fact is, people don’t know what you really need. God knows what you need, and he knows what you need at the deepest level. When you go to him in your wilderness, you will find him as your oasis. When you stop looking to people to fulfill you and put your eyes on him, he puts his eyes on you and says to your soul, “I see you.” One powerful thing you may have noticed about Hagar calling God “The God Who Sees Me” was that this was not a title God gave himself. It was one that Hagar gave to God. When you find him in your pain, when you find him in your rejection, when you find him in your wilderness, you will find a revelation of who he is that you could have never gotten apart from that painful place. Embrace his embrace. Let yourself be loved by him.

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This blog is an excerpt from Robert Presson’s devotional book, “People Of His Presence,” available on Amazon: Click here to purchase on Amazon.  Alternatively, the book is available for free when you give a donation of any amount to City Revival Ministries at cityrevivalnola.com/give. Please indicate that you would like the book when you give.