Did you ever wish you could physically see God, reach out your hand and touch Him, or have the ability to have a face-to-face conversation with Him? I think those wishes are especially evident when we find ourselves in a faith valley.
In our darkest valleys, we wish we could physically see God, because it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that He is here. There is a beautiful worship song called Watching Over Me, which says, “When the valley seems so dark and deep, and the burdens hard to bear...Remember, you are not alone. Look closely and you’ll see The Savior watching over you, and He’s watching over me.”
When I consider these words, I think of a time when God was watching over two of his children when they needed it most. In Genesis 21, after God blesses Abraham and Sarah with Isaac, Sarah decides to throw Hagar and Ishmael out of their house. Hagar was Sarah’s servant and Ishmael was Abraham’s son, so without those two things to take care of them, they were on their own. Abraham gave them some bread and water to sustain them for a little while, but eventually, the food and water ran out. The situation became so dire that Hagar put her child under a bush to die. Verse 16 says, “then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.”
I can think of no lower point in life that a person could be. All Hagar could do was give up. Thanks be to God, however, that is not the end of the story. In the very next verse, God showed Hagar that He was right there with her, God provided them not only with water to survive, but he promised Hagar that He would make Ishmael into a great nation.
Have you ever felt ready to give up? Life is hard. The Christian faith is a roller coaster of mountaintops and valleys. Sometimes, those valleys go so deep that we, like Hagar, see no option but to give up. But in the same way today, our deepest valleys don’t have to be the end of our story. Instead, we serve a faithful God who has promised to care for His children.
We may not be able to see God with our own eyes, but we can see the ways He is working in our life. We serve a faithful God who is always watching over us.
- Jared Green
Via The Encourager
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