Real Life - A Weekly Blog Devotional

From the Word:
Click and read Genesis 16

Key Verse:
Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?”
-Genesis 16:13 (NLT)

(Note: Taking matters into our own hands is a topic I’ll have to tackle in another devotion. Bad Idea! Ha ha)

What stuck with me after the reading was how hard life was for Hagar. She must have felt so alone, and of so little value. She was property, to be given to an old man for sex without her consent. How insignificant she must have felt!

This is an overused analogy, but it always amazes me when I’m in an airplane and look down at the ground. People become smaller and smaller and more and more insignificant the higher the airplane goes. Looking out that airplane window, I can relate to the feelings of the agnostic. Why would God care about me, someone so small in the sea of humanity?

In today’s reading, Hagar says, “You are the God who sees me!” Isn’t that an amazing thing to consider? The God who is big enough to create the universe, and small enough that His fingerprints are seen in the tiniest of cells, saw Hagar, an insignificant servant girl with a rough life. He also sees you and me.

What a comfort to be KNOWN and SEEN. I join Hagar at being amazed by this truth.

Personal Application:
Do a study on the names of God. You can do a Google search or check out one of the many book on that subject. His names give insight into His character. Worship Him for who He is! Thank Him that in the midst of your everyday life, in the midst of the joys and sorrows, you are seen by the One who loves you. Trust him today and rest in knowing that you are not alone.

More of God’s Word

1. You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day. -Psalm 139:15-16 (The Message)

2. Who is like the LORD our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? -Psalm 113:5-6 (NIV)

3. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. - Matthew 10:30 (NIV)

With an hour to kill sitting in the bleachers at my daughter’s gymnastics lesson, I decided it would be a good time to finish up my homework for Bible Study the next morning. I pulled out my copy of Lord, I Want to Know You by Kay Arthur, my favorite pen, and my shiny new, green, spiral notebook, and settled in to study.

As I read the chapter, two questions the author asked jumped out at me:

1. Why do you think it is important to know Him as Creator?

And

2. What role has God had in your life?

Drowning out the noisy gym, I let my mind chew on these questions for awhile. Why is it important to remember He is the Creator? I asked myself. And I wondered if someone asked, What role has God played in your life? how I would answer.

I opened up my new notebook and put my favorite pen to work brainstorming. Here are some of my disorganized thoughts on these two questions:

• Knowing Him as Creator, reminds me of His power. The same One who created stars so large I cannot fathom them, and who’s very fingerprints are all over the tiniest of cells my eyes cannot even see, is the same One who knows me AND He is knowable. Amazing! This knowledge leads to worship and gratitude.
• Knowing Him as Creator leads to humility. I am reminded that I am created, He is my Creator, therefore I submit to Him, to His will, His ways, and have no right to dictate how things should be. (Job 38) I don’t even know enough to know how He does the simplest of things in creation, how can I then tell Him how to run my life?
• Knowing Him as Creator, reminds me that He is worthy of my trust. As my eyes sees all that He has made around me, and as I’m reminded of how mighty He is, how powerful that He could speak life into existence, I’m no longer anxious or afraid. I am His.

And how would I respond to what role God has played in my life? Well….that would take a very long book to write. : ) But here is a shorthand list:

• He had a plan for me, my life, my purpose, and my salvation before the foundation of the Earth.
• He created me. Perfectly. Even with my imperfections. He allowed my left eye to be small and blind for a purpose and my body, my personality, my mind, everything to be formed according to those plans and purposes He had for me before time began.
• He called me and accepted my little girl invitation to come into my life and be my Savior.
• He directed my life, but gave me free will to decide to love and follow Him.
• He forgave me every time I strayed, and welcomed me back with open arms. (Still does)
• Allowed trials, hard things to draw me to a deeper relationship with Him, more reliance on Him, a stronger character, and an ability to comfort and minister to other people in a way I would never have been able to do if I hadn’t been there myself. During all of it, He carried me and comforted me.
• He healed my broken heart and made me whole again
• He gave me hope, purpose, and eternity.
• He filled me with peace that is unexplainable and completely outside of the circumstances in my life.
• He loves me with a love that NO ONE and NO THING can ever take away from me.
• He is my everything, my very reason for existing.

Now it’s your turn. Because meditating on these two questions blessed me so much this week, I wanted to deviate from my regular devotion format and encourage you to contemplate these questions yourself this week. Feel free to use the comment section to do some brainstorming and sharing of your own. It would be awesome for me to read what your thinking about our Creator.

Love,