As we have been reading this story, I hope that one of the many beautiful lessons has emerged for you: God cares for you. He sees you. He hears you. He is there, more near than you realise at times and again – He cares for you.
Today, I write a prayer, formed from the story of Hagar. I hope it blesses you, and maybe even just one of the lines can be made into your own prayer.
Prayer of the God Who Sees
El Roi, the God who sees me,
I come to You today, feeling invisible, unnoticed, knowing the wildernesses of life. I desire to escape from everything that I know, but You promise to meet me wherever I am.
You are the God who seeks those who are running away from their disappointments, who have been cast aside, discarded, feeling forgotten by heaven and earth.
Lord, I have come to the end. The end of my tether. I have run out of what I need, and this time feels different—it feels worse than before. The pain and despair have been so traumatic that I cannot see what might be in front of me.
But You are a promise-making and promise-keeping God. You found Hagar on the desert road, and You will find me, no matter where I am today. You see me and You hear me—my pain and my hopes.
I may be crying out to You, but I trust that You have heard me. I am not unknown to You. I am not forgotten.
Help me to remember: this place I am in right now may not be the end, but the beginning of a new chapter in my life. The desert doesn’t win. It becomes a servant for You in my life. Being cast out, losing everything, isn’t the last sentence in my story.
The trauma is real, but so are You, my God.
Like a spring in the desert, bring living water to my driest places. Open my eyes to see Your provision that may be closer to me than I realise.
You don’t wait for my life to be sorted out. You step into my family and into my world. You have the last word on my life, not anyone else.
No pain that I experience has the last word over my life.
You are El Roi—the God who sees me.
Amen.
Missions Paul 