Spend time in prayer and silence with God asking him to meet you and speak to you.
Bible Reading
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.” “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
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. Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” The angel of the LORD also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
She gave this name 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.” That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael
– Genesis 16:1-16
Devotion
There is something everyone can relate to in the life of Hagar; most of us can closely identify with her trials at some point. Having been used and abused, she saw escape into the wilderness as the only way to end her suffering. However, during their brief encounter, God used Hagar’s love for her son, and even her own pain, as a way to bless her. The hope of that future blessing gave Hagar the strength to place her faith in God, and return to a situation she had no guarantee would improve.
Just as God used Hagar’s love of Ishmael to strengthen her faith in Him, God can use our own families to draw us closer to him. Though the pain and fear of trials can be a distraction, they can also serve as a way to clear our minds from earthly things, and focus us on the eternal.
The life of Hagar demonstrates God’s love for us. Even as Hagar loved Ishmael in the womb God loved us before we were even born. She fled what was certainly an awful situation, but returned to it at God’s command, after He promised her and Ishmael a great future.
The Big Question
What circumstances are you facing in life that you are trying to manage by using human strategies? Where God is calling you to put your faith in Him instead, with no guarantee that the circumstances will improve this side of heaven?
Conclude in prayer and silence reflecting on what you’ve learned.