July 2018

secret that I would never do in
the light.
Like no other time in human history,
through our digital devices,
we have the perceived ability to
live with secrets. In fact, two of
pornography’s most persuasive
lies are:
• You’re not hurting anyone.
• No one will ever know.
• How many hundreds of times
have you used those as justification?
But, what if we began to believe
that no matter what, no matter
where we are, even when
the lights are off and the door
is shut, that we are seen? How
might we all live differently if we
began to let go of the fallacy of
secrecy? What might your daily
choices look like if you knew that
God truly saw you?
A God Who Truly Sees Us
In Genesis chapter 16, we find
the story of Abraham and Hagar
who is the slave of Abraham’s
wife, Sarah.
It’s a complex and messy chapter.
It’s a story that includes slavery,
extra-marital relations, and
the exploitation of a woman and
her infant child.
For background, Abraham and
Sarah are married and old. God
had promised Abraham that he
would be the father of a great
nation back in Genesis 12, but
now decades later, and married
to a barren, elderly woman, the
prospect of birthing a great nation
looked very unlikely. And so,
in an act of desperation, Sarah
allows her slave Hagar to provide
them a child with Abraham.
Let’s pick up the story when
Hagar becomes pregnant with
Abraham’s child:
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.
Hagar called God, EL ROI–the
God who sees me.
The God of everything sees little
old me. Always available. Never
surprised.
Even the most watchful parent
has to sleep some. But Scripture
makes it clear God never slumbers,
never looks one way while
we head off in another, never
misses a millisecond of what
happens on earth.
The realization that we worship
a God who always sees us likely
elicits a wide range of emotions.
For those hurting and desperate
like Hagar, it’s the awesome realization
that there is no pit too
deep or situation too desperate
that our God will not jump in and
join me. Psalm 46:1 tells us that
God is “an ever-present help”
when we are in trouble.
But, for those who have secrets,
it’s the awful realization that
there are no secrets and that every
breath of my life is seen by
the One who sees me.
36 www.faithfilledfamily.com July 2018