Abram

January 21

Genesis 16:7-15

Abandoned, but not forgotten

Sarai’s servant, Hagar, was alone in the desert. She felt rejected and abandoned.

As she rested beside a spring, the angel of the Lord came to her and asked, “Where have you come from, and where are you going?”

Hagar answered, “I am running away from my mistress.”

Then the angel said, “Go back to her. The Lord has heard your cry. I will give you so many descendants that you will not be able to count them. You will have a son, and you will call him Ishmael.”

So Hagar called the Lord who had spoken to her “The God Who Sees.”

Does God see and care when I feel unwanted?

Have you ever been to a party where no one seems to notice you or talk to you? It can feel as though others look right through you. Maybe you don’t even get invited to parties, and life feels very lonely.

Abram and Sarai had rejected Hagar, and she may have wondered whether Abram’s God had also forgotten her. She had no family to turn to and no one to provide her with food. Yet God saw Hagar’s tears, and He felt the pain in her heart.

God sees the pain of loneliness in every sad heart. In Isaiah 53:3, the prophet wrote that Jesus was despised and rejected by men—a man of sorrows who knew what it was like to suffer. Jesus, more than anyone else, knows what it feels like to be rejected. He wants to come to you and be your best friend, forever.

Verse for today

… I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Joshua 1:5