Hello lovelies! Welcome back to our Titus 2 Tuesdays series! According to Titus 2:3-5, we can learn much from godly women who are older than us. For our last post, we have a devotional from our guest of the week, Helen Moore. I’ve been blessed to get to know Helen through Instagram, and I so appreciate her love for God’s Word. You can follow her IG @anchoreddaily! Today, Helen is sharing a devotional with three key lessons from the life of Hagar.
Read on for Titus 2 Tuesdays with Helen Moore.
Have you ever felt alone or rejected? Have you ever felt like no one cared about your problems or like you had no one to turn to during a difficult time? I think everyone can answer “yes” to at least one of these questions. And there is a woman in the Bible who, if we could have asked her these questions, would have answered “yes” to all of them, too. She was a woman who had a hard life, who faced rejection, and who ran away from her problems. But she was pursued by a God Who saw her and heard her desperate cries. That woman was Hagar. Her story in Scripture is brief, but it contains valuable lessons for us as we face our own struggles today.
Lesson 1: God sees you.
We first meet Hagar in Genesis 16. She was a servant, a concubine, and a foreigner (her homeland was Egypt). Since her mistress Sarah hadn’t conceived the son God had promised to her and Abraham, Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham so he could have a child through her instead. When Hagar did conceive a child, Sarah began to mistreat her, causing Hagar to run away. She probably thought that no one would care or miss her.
But God saw Hagar! He went after the hurting, and probably angry, runaway servant because He cared about her. He even spoke to her and addressed her by name. He told her to return to Sarah and gave her several promises concerning her unborn son.
Hagar seemed to understand the significance of this encounter with God and responded by calling Him El Roi, “The God Who Sees.” She submitted to His will and returned, even though she had no idea what her future would hold.
The same God Who saw and cared for Hagar sees and cares for us. He pursues us in our hurt, rejection, and loneliness because He loves us too much to leave us in our misery.
We can ignore Him and continue to be miserable, or we can recognize Who He is and allow Him to restore our hurting heart. If we are willing to respond to Him, He will help us through whatever heartache we are facing as we cling to the promises He gives us.
Lesson 2: God wants to hear about your troubles.
When God found Hagar, the first thing He did was ask her a question: “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? And whither wilt thou go?” (Genesis 16:8) Did the all-knowing God need to ask Hagar those things because He didn’t know the answers?
Of course not! He knew exactly what was going on in Hagar’s life. I think He asked her those questions because He wanted her to open her heart to Him and tell Him her troubles so He could give her comfort and strength. He even told her to name her son Ishmael, which means “God will hear.” Every time Hagar looked at her son, she would be reminded of the time when Jehovah heard her.
While God doesn’t audibly ask us questions today, His Word is full of commands to bring our troubles to Him. Psalm 62:8 says, “Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.” When we don’t know who we can turn to, God is always ready to listen. And if we search His Word, we will find many promises that He will hear us.
Lesson 3: You can’t control your circumstances, but you can control your reactions.
In Genesis 21, we encounter Hagar again. Ishmael is now a teenager, and Isaac has been born to Abraham and Sarah. At a feast to celebrate Isaac’s weaning, Sarah caught Ishmael teasing Isaac. Furious, she demanded that Ishmael and Hagar be sent away. They wandered alone in the wildernes, with no one to care if they lived or died. Eventually, their provisions ran out, and Ishmael came close to death. Hagar was hopeless, broken, and ready to give up.
But God heard their desperate cries and again intervened. He reminded Hagar of His promises concerning Ishmael, and He revealed a nearby well that could meet their physical needs. They survived their ordeal and made their home in the wilderness, relying on God’s promises for their future.
In our lives, we can’t control what happens to us or how other people treat us. But we can control how we respond to our circumstances. We can cling to our misery, or we can cling to God’s provision and promises.
We may not face a physical life-or-death situation, but our spiritual survival will depend on whether we choose to focus on our circumstances or on our God. We can’t control our circumstances, but through God’s Spirit, we can always control our reactions. By His grace, we can be more than conquerors as we journey through life’s challenges.
Author Bio
Helen is a ministry wife, mom, homemaker, and blogger. She loves reading, writing, and spending time with her family. You can follow her on IG @anchoreddaily and read her blog, Anchored Daily, for Bible studies, home and family inspiration, and encouraging devotionals.
Closing Thoughts (From Claudine):
Thank you so much to Helen for sharing this devotional with us. It was a blessing! I personally love the story of Hagar and how it demonstrates God’s compassion and patience with us. Even when Hagar was running away from her problems, He sought her out and provided for her needs. What a powerful lesson for us ladies today!
If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment below to share what you learned or liked best about it. And don’t forget to follow Helen’s IG account @anchoreddaily!
Love,
Claudine
