So she named the LORD who spoke to her: The God Who Sees, for she said, “Have I really seen here the One who sees me?”
Hagar was hurting. She had run away from her mistress, Sarai, due to mistreatment. She was a pregnant slave with no husband and a miserable outlook for a future in the household of Abram. Her mistress’s jealousy raged against her, and there would be no way to appease it. She was destined to eternal punishment if she returned, yet that was exactly what the LORD had instructed her to do. God saw her pain and comforted her.
Hagar’s predicament is very much like ours without Christ. As a lost sinner, we are subject to a harsh task master with eternal punishment and no hope of ever paying our debt. God, however, saw our desperate situation and had mercy upon us. He sent His one and only Son to pay the price for our freedom so we would not have to suffer eternal punishment. We are the slave woman set free.
Rejoice today that God sees your situation, and He has already made provision for you through Jesus Christ. You do not have to suffer eternally, and anything God calls you to endure on earth will be of gain to you somehow. He promises you an inheritance in His Son, and He will build something great through you if you surrender to His will. He sees, and He cares. Praise Him today, for He has given you hope.
Then the Angel of the LORD appeared to him (Gideon) and said: “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
During the days of the judges, Israel operated in a cycle of dysfunction. They would sin, fall into bondage or oppression from the enemy, then turn to God and cry out for deliverance. God would always hear their cry and raise up a deliverer from their midst. God chose who He would use; Israel never selected their own deliverer by popular vote. God simply decided to show His favor upon someone and worked through that person. He has a way of making the ordinary extraordinary and the average exceptional as His presence is manifested in a life previously held captive by mediocrity with a desire to excel.
Gideon saw himself as small and weak as he hid in a wine vat to thresh wheat. If he was going to eat, he had to hide his crop from the enemy and harvest in secret. Many of us may be hiding our produce in secret, afraid of the overwhelming presence of the enemy in our lives. God wants to free us from strongholds that have set up authority in our lives to steal our gifts. How long will we remain in hiding? We will stay there as long as we see ourselves small and weak. When God reveals what He sees in us, it inspires us to break out of our caves and be who He has truly called us to be. He saw a mighty warrior in Gideon. What does He see in you?
God’s plan for us was never to keep us in hiding! Jesus came to give us life more abundantly in Him. He gave us authority over the enemy. Until we see what He has called us to be and the value He has placed inside us, we will be just like Gideon – hiding, complaining, and barely getting by. He is with us and has promised to never leave us. Dare to listen to the voice of God that calls you forward, and don’t be intimidated by the dominating presence of the enemy. The power of God in you is greater than the control of the enemy around you. Seek Him. Listen to Him. Ask for confirmation, which is not the same as doubt. God will be faithful to answer where you need Him. He will encourage you along the way to assure you. May we be women who are mighty warriors, rather than mighty hiders and complainers. Hiding and complaining will get us nowhere, but listening to God and acting on His call will deliver us from oppression. Rise up, oh mighty warrior! Your time is now!
Then Abimelech came to him (Isaac) from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of the army. Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me? You hated me and sent me away from you.” They replied, “We have clearly seen how the LORD has been with you. We think there should be an oath between two parties – between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you: You will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you but have only done what was good to you, sending you away in peace. You are now blessed by the LORD.”
When God is with you, He will make even your enemies live at peace with you. Abimelech and the Philistines were very envious of Isaac and his prosperity, so they threw dirt in his wells and ran him out of the country. After seeing how God blessed Isaac wherever he went, however, Abimelech knew he needed to make peace with Isaac.
I find Abimelech’s recollection of events interesting in light of his newly found need to befriend Isaac. While the Philistines previously treated Isaac with contempt, Abimelech felt they had done only what was good to Isaac, implying that they did him a favor by clogging his wells and sending him away. Abimelech feared God’s wrath, and he wanted to make sure everything was right between him and Isaac. While this doesn’t seem like much of an apology to me, Isaac had no intentions of harming Abimelech or the Philistines, so he entered into a covenant with them. Neither would harm the other.
When God blesses you, some will be drawn to God through you. These are the ones with hearts for God who recognize their own need for grace. Others, however, will see you as competition and will be threatened by you. These are the ones who have yet to recognize their need for grace and are trying to gain prominence or approval from others by their own means. Like Abimelech, they must come to recognize that they cannot stop God’s blessing on your life and must find a way to live in peace with you. The best thing you can do is not to come into competition with them, but simply move on down the road, dig a new well, and let God continue to bless you. When the opportunity comes to make peace, do so. Enemies cannot stop God’s blessing on your life. God will make them live at peace with you.
When God is with you, you will encounter opposition. You have no need to worry, however, because God is with you. Let Him fight the battles for you, and simply dig a new well. When the enemy sees that you continue to find water wherever you go, there will be no denying God’s work in your life. Sooner or later, they will stop fighting you and join you. God’s blessing on you has a purpose, and He will accomplish it through you – one way or another.
Then He said to Jacob, “Let Me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.”
Jacob had wrestled with God all night and was certainly tired, but he would not let go of Him until God blessed him. As long as Jacob wrestled with God, he was engaged with Him. Jacob was not about to endure that fight without a blessing. Do we have the stamina to wrestle with God until He blesses us?
If Jacob had let God go, he would have been left to himself. Unless he had the blessing of God on his life, he could go no further, and he knew it. Left to his own schemes and deceitful ways, he was bound to face justice at some point. Jacob had rather wrestle with God and be engaged with him than to be left to himself. In his wrestling with God, Jacob came face to face with his own weakness and limitations. He could not let go of God until he was blessed by his struggle.
Our struggles with God are designed to do the same thing. They make us fully aware of our own weaknesses and limitations, and we must rely upon the grace of God to move forward. Left to ourselves, we will get nowhere. We need His blessing to proceed.
Have you wrestled with God on a matter? Don’t let go of Him until He blesses you. Keep taking that situation to God, expecting a blessing. Your own strength can take you only so far, and you will have to depend upon Him to carry you further. If you have to endure the fight, you might as well gain something from it. Don’t let go of God. He has a blessing for you.
And we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s co-worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you concerning your faith, so that no one will be shaken by these persecutions. For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.
Yes, you read that right. We are appointed for persecutions. While many are preaching a prosperity gospel today that says God wants all men to be healthy, wealthy, and happy, Paul clearly stated to the church at Thessalonica that we, as Christians, are appointed for persecutions. Because of this very fact, he sent Timothy to them to encourage them in their faith. To endure persecution, we need encouragement to continue in the faith and reject the temptation to surrender to the enemy.
If we were appointed for persecution, then God has equipped us and anointed us to withstand. We must trust Him. God is still with us through the persecution, and He is doing something we cannot yet see through it. Our call is to endure and to stay true to His word. Paul did not send Timothy to deliver them from persecution; he sent Timothy to encourage them in their faith. Our faith is what overcomes the world, and it must be bigger than our fears or our feelings. When faith is greater, God’s power moves through us.
Difficult times will come. Persecution for being a Christian and standing on the principles of God’s word are imminent, but our faith has the ability to overcome this onslaught from the enemy. We must endure and wait for God’s power to be revealed in us and for us. Hang in there, stand firm, carry on, and overcome. You are right where God has appointed you to be, and He will give you the victory through your faith.
“Will I bring a baby to the point of birth and not deliver it?” says the LORD; “or will I who deliver, close the womb?” says your God.
We must learn to trust the heavenly Father with our pain. If God has brought pain, He is birthing something in you and will not allow the pain to come without delivering joy from it. A woman in labor has no choice but to push through the pain to delivery. While she may want to give up and run, the pain goes with her because of what God has placed inside her. If He has brought her to the point of pain, however, the delivery of joy is very near!
Are you hurting today? God has something wonderful for you on the other side of that pain. Keep pressing through it until you receive your joy. Trying to ignore or drown the pain with other things will only work for a little while. Sooner or later, the heavy contractions of labor will come that cannot be denied any longer. Press through the pain to receive your joy.
Whatever God births in you is destined to draw others to Him. Rejoice in the fact He is allowing you to be fruitful and multiply something for His kingdom. Your “baby” is the product of your intimacy with Him, and whatever He produces in you is well worth the struggle to deliver it. Your pain is only temporary, but what you are birthing is eternal. Don’t give up now; you are almost there!
Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my shame.” She named him Joseph. “May the LORD add another son to me.”
Rachel was barren no more! When she gave birth to a son, her shame of barrenness was forever gone. She could now see herself in a different light and know that others would view her differently, as well. No longer scorned by her culture, she now had what other women had and could finally be considered a blessed woman. God remembered her sorrow and filled her void.
Remembered here means “to mark; to recognize.” Until now, God had seemingly ignored Rachel’s desire for a son. The second sentence says God listened to her. At first, we found Rachel demanding sons from Jacob. We then saw her give her servant to Jacob for sons. After that, she turned to mandrakes as a fertility drug. Finally, she cried out to God, and He listened to her. Only God could fill that inner longing, and Rachel learned to turn from other people and things to meet her need and to turn to God. When she did, God remembered her.
If we ignore God, we shouldn’t be surprised if He ignores us. He is our source – our provider, our protector, our everything. We must learn to turn to Him first and cry out to Him to fill those voids that only He can fill. Rachel could credit no one but God. She immediately gave Him praise, recognizing that He had taken away her shame. Having a son did not make her the better woman; it made her a blessed woman.
We all have voids we cannot fill, and only God can fill them. Stop looking to others and to things to fill that void, and look up to a Savior who has died to give you everything. Gaining your deep desires will not make you a better woman or bring you the significance you crave because you will always have more to prove as someone else does it better. When you finally accept who you are and realize your own lack of ability to be what you truly desire, you will become dependent upon the grace of God and be able to receive a blessing only He can give. Stop trying to be better, and submit to be blessed. God will take away your shame!
Before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, LORD. You have encircled me; you have placed Your hand on me.
Verse 14
I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well.
Have you ever felt like you just didn’t measure up somehow? Such thoughts come only by comparing yourself to others. When God made you, He didn’t create you to be like the last creation He made or the next one in line. Regardless of what some might think, He doesn’t have an assembly line working in the heavenlies. He creates each one of us uniquely and with a special plan in mind. We are made intentionally for a purpose – handcrafted and customized to complete the mission for which we were made.
God did not create you to fit in a crowd. He made you to be exceptional. When exceptional people try to fit in with the groups, they decrease their effectiveness. Exceptional people rise above the crowds. God encircles them, and His hand is evident upon them.
David wrote this psalm, and you can sense his feelings of solitude while reading it. You can see where he knew he was not like the others, and he wanted to belong somewhere. David was an exceptional man who was called to do great things. If he simply fit in with the others, he would lose his ability to one day lead. David learned to befriend God and to keep company with Him. In fact, we were all created to have fellowship with God, and our lives are only enhanced when we pursue that relationship with Him.
David also praised God for the way He created him. He realized that while he felt odd and different from others, he was remarkably and wonderfully made by his Creator. God doesn’t make mistakes; all of His works are wonderful. You are one of His works, dear sister. Praise Him for the way He made you today, and celebrate your uniqueness by spending time in His presence. You are exceptional. Find a way to live exceptionally today.
For I know that the LORD is great; our Lord is greater than all gods. The LORD does whatever He pleases in heaven an on earth, in the seas and all the depths.
While we will certainly encounter problems and obstacles in this world, our God is greater than these. No one can stop His plan, and we must learn to rely completely upon Him. Satan tried to kill Jesus, but His death was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. What the Devil meant for evil was all a part of God’s plan for our good.
You are not defeated. God has already insured your victory on the cross. Whatever problem, trial, or hardship the Devil has placed in your way will only become a stepping stone to your success. Just turn it over to God, and continue to walk in the direction He leads you. Just because a plan failed does not mean you have failed. God is greater than all gods, and His plans will be completed in the earth.
Place your faith firmly in Christ and the work He completed on the cross. He died so you might have life abundantly, and the only way the Devil can steal your peace is if you let him. He cannot steal your victory if you forge ahead, knowing that God is at work where you cannot see. If you have encountered a setback, simply press on in your goal. God has an open door somewhere that no one can shut with your name on it!
I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on paths they have not known. I will turn darkness to light in front of them and rough places into level ground. This is what I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.
Have you ever found yourself in a rough place and just couldn’t see your way through it? God has promised to not only provide a way through the dark, difficult times of life, but He will lead us through it and never forsake us. He won’t just point us in the right direction; He will literally take us by the hand and guide us through those places every step of the way. Hallelujah! I’m not just out here trying to feel my way through life, and neither are you. God knows right where He is taking us. We just can’t see it.
If you find yourself in such a place, the best thing you can do is to just hold the Father’s hand. You won’t be able to figure it out on your own, but you can trust His hand to guide you. Don’t concentrate on the direction or the destination; just concentrate on His hand. He will do the rest.
God will make a way where there seems to be no way, and He is able to level any mountain or rough terrain so you can safely walk on it. If you should fall, He is right there to pick you up and keep you going. Don’t stay in the rough place; allow God to move you out of it. Just because you can’t see is no excuse to stay there and do nothing. Keep moving by holding on to His hand, and trusting He is taking you somewhere – somewhere good!
Have a blessed day!
PHOEBE Connections, Inc. is a 501(c)3 dedicated to enhancing the lives of widows by building relationships and helping them find new identity in Jesus Christ through serving others. We promote an atmosphere of fellowship, where the widow can connect with other widows to develop friendships and supportive relationships.