The God Who Sees

Our text this morning is Genesis 16, as Brian has already read for us. So you can turn there. We'll be walking through the text. But as I thought about this, I think the text is very telling for us this morning and who we are, who we should be, who we're called to be as Christians. As I thought about who we are as Americans, one word kind of keeps coming up. We are an entitled people. We feel like we deserve things. We feel like we are entitled to certain ways of life. We feel like we are entitled to a good life, to prosperity, to an easy life. We've been taught all our lives. We deserve the good life. And there's really two ways this entitlement is played out. There's one way in which we are entitled to a good life and an easy life, even though we don't work for it. This is really prominent among the younger Americans. It's not just the younger Americans, but it's really prominent among the younger. We're entitled to everything we want, even though we don't work for it. We should get A's, not because we worked hard on the paper, but because we turned in a paper. We should get a job, not because we're qualified for that job, but because we applied for that job. We're entitled to things, even though we don't really work for them. The other way that we think about entitlement is that we're entitled to what we want because we work for it. We deserve the good life, the easy life and prosperity because we've worked hard. This is prominent among the older generations. You work hard and you get what you work for. Now, that second way of thinking is what I want to focus on this morning, because there's a mantra in the midst of that that really sums it up. God helps those who help themselves. That's really what's standing behind that idea. That I'm entitled to get what I want when I work hard for it. Because if I work hard, God's going to give me what I'm working for. God will help those who help themselves. This is the mantra of American moralism. This is really the John 3.16 of the American religion. God will help me if I just work hard at it. Friends, this moralism is contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That moralism, that God helps those that help themselves, that declaration that God is working in your work, that's contrary to the gospel. Because the gospel says God loves those who hate him. God saves sinners who are dead in their sin. God makes alive what is dead. But this is always the temptation to think, if I just get the ball rolling, God will make it snowball. If I just get the work going, God will finish it for me. No, God helps those who are helpless. God helps those who need help and cannot do anything on their own. Our story this morning really focuses on a failure. in the covenant family, Abraham and Sarah, a failure in them thinking they can actually help God fulfill His promises. That's what they're doing in this story. They're trying to fix the problem for God because they've lost faith in God. The story is fascinating in the sense that it follows right after Genesis 15. God's great covenant sign, where God cut animals up into two, put them on each side, and He starts walking through those animals saying, I'm making these promises to you, and if they do not come true, I'm as good as dead. Making a promise that's sure and absolute. And then Genesis 17, where God gives this sign of circumcision after Abraham continues to doubt. Here we have this peculiar story. of another lapse of faith, another lapse of faith in the covenant family. And here it's really focused on, well, one of the slaves in the covenant family. Now, I personally love the story, I love the stories of Hagar here and later in Genesis, because it shows just the sweetness of God. His sweet, loving compassion. I love this story because it's a warm story of God's great love. I also love this story because it reveals our lack of faith and reminds us that God is faithful. I also love this story because there's some peculiar content in it, as we'll see. And most of all this morning, I love this story because it may be the most peculiar text you've preached on Mother's Day. But the sermon calendar fell, as it were. And here we are in Genesis 16, on Mother's Day, talking about, well, some odd motherly behavior. Let's get into our story. The backdrop of the story. Genesis 12, God called Abram out of his people to be a great people. And all these promises hinge upon Abram having a son. They are childless. Over and over again, they are childless. They are living under the curse of having difficulty in childbearing. And they're waiting and waiting for years. In chapter 15, Abraham tries to get around this problem and adopt a son. And God says, no, you're not going to adopt a son. We're going to give you a son. Here it's Sarah or Sarai, as her original name was, who has the lapse of faith. That's the backdrop setting. Verse 1 gives us the setting of the story. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. There's the problem. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. Okay, we're hinting at towards what the human solution is going to be. And Sarai said to Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath prevented me from bearing children. go into my servant, it may be that I shall obtain children by her." Now, this is a loaded text in this one verse. The Lord has prevented me from having children. She sees that it's God's hand that has kept her from having children. I believe it's actually more of an accusation than a praise of His sovereignty. What she's telling Abraham to do, what she's telling Abraham to do is to take her servant lie with her, and have children through her. Now this may seem peculiar to us, but this was expected socially. Most of Sarai's friends would have been telling her, why aren't you following the custom? We know from all the ancient Near Eastern documents we have, it is normal for a wife, the first wife, the head wife, when she can't have children, it's always her fault by the way, in these documents, when she can't have children, for her to choose one of her servants and have children through her. All these years, this was an option that people would have been telling Sarah, why aren't you doing this? Why aren't you putting your Hagar or some other woman in front of Abram and say, have children. I need an heir. This was sanctioned and expected behavior. This was the custom of the day. So, at one point, we can see it seems immoral to us, but this was the custom of the day. But even though it was the custom of the day, it's completely inappropriate. Because the reason she's doing this isn't because it's a custom, it's because she's lost faith in God. She started doubting God and His faithfulness to His promise that He was going to give them a son. She's getting old. She knows her years are numbered. She knows her childbearing years are numbered. She knows God has prevented her. And so she's going to fix the problem. She's going to help herself. Then notice the last part of verse two, and Abram listened to the voice of Sarah. He doesn't pray. He doesn't ask God. He doesn't think about all the promises God has done. He just listens to his wife. He doesn't listen to God. He listens to his wife. He sits passively by and lets her make this huge decision. Sounds kind of like Adam sitting passively by, letting his wife make the biggest mistake in human history. Here Avram, he's not leading his wife to trust the promises of God. He's not leading his wife to say, God will keep His promise. I have seen the Son. I have heard His Word. He completely fails as the head of the covenant family. Look at verse 3. So, Avram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan. Sarai, Avram's wife, took Hagar, the Egyptian, her servant and gave her to Abram, her husband, as a wife. Now, I alluded earlier that this sounds like Adam. This is definitely Edenic language. This is definitely language from the garden, because if you look in Genesis 3, 6, Eve took the fruit and gave it to Adam. This is a clear allusion. She took Hagar and gave her to have wronged. The illusion is clear. The same sin that destroyed the original family is the sin that's present here in the covenant family. Sin just repeats its pattern. And God continues to be faithful. Verse 4, And he went unto Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. So, verse 2, Sarai thinks she's going to solve a problem. She's going to get a child. She's going to find another way to get a child apart from what God wants to do. But here in verse 4, when Hagar conceives, she looks upon Sarai with contempt. There's just more problems as our supposed solutions continue out. The problem continues, and Sarai said to Avram, may the wrong done to me be on you. I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me." Sariah's decisions, to Sariah trying to fix things on her own. Sariah trying to be wiser than God. Well, now it's not only affected her relation with Hagar. It's affecting her relation with her husband. When we break God's covenant, when we doubt God, we try to put things in our own hands, we cause more problems. And here we see it manifested in the covenant marriage between Abram and Sarai. And you see here also that that that identical illusion, there's the blame game taking place. Whose idea was it? It's Sarai's. But she's saying, no, it's your fault, Abram. In many ways, she's right. He should have been responsible. He should have said no. Also interesting here, the last part of verse 5, may the Lord judge between you and me. It's interesting here, she takes on the Lord's covenant name and she trusts His judgment. But in verse 2, she doesn't trust His word of faithfulness. Verse 6, But if Ram said to Sarai, Behold, your servant is in your power. Do to her as you please. Then Sarai dealt harshly with her. And she fled from her. Now, when Avram took Hagar, she became a second wife. She's not as important as the first wife. The first wife always has the most important status in the household. But Hagar became a second wife to Avram, which meant she was under his authority. And here in verse 6, Avram cuts her out of his household. He puts her away from being his wife and puts her back under submission to Sarah, Sarai. Back of a slave girl. This is cold hearted. Again, lacking all responsibility as a man, as the head of the home. He's even putting his own son in jeopardy here. And Sarah deals harshly with her. Now, if we go forward in Exodus, chapter six, verse nine is one instance. That dealing harshly. That's how the Egyptians treated the Israelites. The exact same word. Here you have the Israelite, the mother of all Israelites, Sarai, treating her Egyptian harshly. If you're in exile as an Israelite, and Moses is writing this, and he's reading it to you as he's writing it, that word harshly rings a bell. It's supposed to. And when Sarai treats Hagar harshly, she flees. And where does she go? Well, she begins to head home. She's headed towards Egypt. Where else is she going to go? So, she flees from the home. She's in ultimate danger. A woman out in the wilderness by herself is sure death. And verse 7 is where this begins to focus less on the failure of the covenant family and more on the faithfulness of God. The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going? She says, I am fleeing my mistress, Sarai." So, here we have the angel of the Lord, which it could be an angel. It's another translation of the messenger of the Lord. I believe this is a second person of the Trinity, not incarnate. I believe this is God Himself manifest to Hagar, coming and pursuing her personally. The very fact that she says, God sees me, I believe she has felt the exact presence of God, not just an angel, but God Himself coming down, not incarnate, but in a visible form. And He sees her. And he asked her this question, where have you come from and where are you going? Well, of course, he knows. He knows what's happened. He knows what's going on. I'm being abused. I'm fleeing my abusive master. In verse 9, maybe the most shocking verse in all, everything so far has been somewhat shocking in terms of how the story plays out. But verse 9 is really the most shocking. And the angel of the Lord said to her, return. Return to your mistress and submit to her. Hagar's already in despair. Hagar's already run away. She's probably scared to death. When the angel or the Lord Himself comes and appears to her and begins asking her, where are you going? She gives a clear answer. I'm fleeing. And the first words off his lips? Return? Not fear not. Return. Imagine how her face falls. Return to your mistress and submit to her. Let's continue to read. Verses 10 to 12, And the angel of the Lord also said to her, I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said to her, Behold, you are pregnant. And shall bear a son, you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him. And he shall dwell over against all the kinsmen." So, God gives her a clear command to go or to return. But here we have God giving such a sweet promise to Hagar. You will have numerous children. This particular son you have, he will be a wild donkey of a man, but he will be a great nation. So, as he sends her away, he's giving her a promise. Well, one thing stands out here. This is the only woman in Scripture that gets a covenant promise like this. This is a very unique covenant promise for a woman in Scripture. And if we listen to this, we hear undertones of Genesis 12, don't we? This is very similar to the promises God made to Abraham. The only difference is they're not salvific. They're not redemptive. He's promising them great nations. He's promising her a number of children, a prosperity in this world, but he's not promising the salvation blessings that Abraham gets. Now, let me just stop here for a second because Well, something needs to be explained. This is oftentimes interpreted as God declaring that Ishmael will be the father of the Muslim people. The Koran does say Ishmael is the head of their lineage, not Isaac. They choose Ishmael. Well, the Old Testament and New Testament, the Hebrews and Christians, the Jews and the Christians, we all go back to Isaac. Now, I don't think we should read this as in any way prophesying that Ishmael is going to be the head of the Islamic people, the Islamic religion, the Muslims. I do not read the Old Testament in light of the Quran. I read the Old Testament in light of the New Testament. I read Scripture and I believe all this is saying is that Ishmael is going to be the head of a different race, a different people group, a different nation. Muslims aren't destined to be Muslims. Arabs aren't destined to be Muslims. This is simply saying he's going to be the father of the Arab people, the Bedouins, the nomads who live in the land. They're not destined to be Muslims. They need to be called out to be Christians. When we look at Arabs, we don't say, look, they must be Muslims. No, we look and we say, we need to share the gospel with them. We need to pray that Arabs become Christians. There are a number of Arab Christians who are under persecution. We cannot automatically think, because the Koran says so, that Ishmael is the head of all Muslims. No, he's the head of the race of Arabs. And Arabs are a people and a tongue and a tribe that will be there in heaven praising the one true God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We need to be praying that God will save more Arabs from Islam. It's too simplistic of a reading to go ahead and just say Ishmael is the father of Muslims. No, he's the father of the Arab people. And Arabs are called out to be Christians. Let's go on to verse 13 and 14. So, she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, you are a God of seeing, or you are the God who sees. For she said, truly I have seen him who looks after me." Now, verses 10-12 is the only covenant promise made to a woman. Verse 13 is the only time in Scripture where God receives a name from a person. Not just a woman, from a person. She creates a name for God. This is very unique. This is one of the things that makes this story just fascinating. She gives God a name, and it's a sweet name, because there she is in her despair. There she is without hope. There she is helpless. And God comes and sees her. He focuses attention upon her. He's listening. He's seeing. He's caring. And she responds the only way she can, even though she's got this hard command to return. You are the God who sees me. And she has to say that because that is what comforts her. That is what will get her through returning to her mistress. This is what's going to get her through returning to the slavery and the harshness. It's the fact that she has had a personal encounter with the God who sees her and He comforts her and keeps her. Therefore, the well was called Ber L'chai Roy. This is where God sees me. It lies between Kadesh and Ber-eb. And Hagar bore Avram a son, and Abram called the name of the son whom Hagar bore Ishmael. God hears. Avram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Avram. And we know that there's a decade later that Isaac will then come. Well, as we look at this text, a few things. I want to make two observations about God. First, God is faithful to His promises and patient. with his people. Here's the covenant family, Abram and Sarai. Here's the covenant people, the hope of the world rests upon them. God has said, you will have a child and that child is whom I will use to save the world. It's your lineage. We know this to be Jesus Christ later on in the history. And here they are, and it looks like a soap opera, the way they're acting. There's every kind of sin present. Abraham fails to lead his wife. He sheepishly accepts her proposal to fix God's plan for him. He does not lead his wife to trust her. Instead, even though it's a social norm, he takes a woman in adultery. Sarah is manipulative. She's self-reliant. She acts with anger and violence towards Hagar. She gives another woman to her husband. Hagar, maybe passively, but she's still active in, or she's passive, but she's still in an adulterous relationship. And then you see her contempt and her conceit. All of them, or rather none of them, trust God. None of them wait. None of them trust His word. None of them see Him as faithful. They all fail to believe. They know better than God. They are wiser than God. They're going to do it a better way than God, instead of trusting God to do it his way. Now, here's the question, friends, do we trust God any more than they do? Do we actually have a better faith? Do we have a better trust? Do we weight upon God better than Abraham and Sarah? They waited years for a child until they failed in this story. How long would you have waited for a child? Better yet, let's ask about how we felt today, especially in light of the fact that we have promises that are better and clearer than those that Abraham and Sarah had. God has given us his entire word. Abraham heard a word, but he doesn't have all the scripture that records all of God's deeds, all of God's promises, all of God's faithfulness. This story over and over again will remind us He's faithful. He's patient. He's gracious. More than that, we have the testimony of the cross that shows us that he loves us. We have the testimony of the cross that shows that he loves us enough to die for us. We have the testimony of the resurrection that says all that Jesus came to fulfill and to do is true. We have the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit. That illuminates our hearts and seals them. Then we have small little sweet taps like Romans 8.28. God works all things for good for those who love Him. We could chair in this room right now. How many people can give testimony that that is true? In your own personal life, as you have walked as a Christian, you know God is faithful. Even when you are faithless. We have all the great testimonies, and yet, do we trust God? Do we wait upon God when there's a problem? Do we search for an immediate solution? Do we pray for God in the midst of the problem? We're trying to find the easiest way out. Do we trust God when we're under trial or in suffering? When we're suffering, do we expect that God has to tell us exactly why, how long and for what? Do we expect God to have to answer to us? When we're in the midst of something that's difficult. See, I think, I think we as humans tend to resist. We try to find the easy way out. Suffering and waiting are not a strength of ours. Suffering and enduring and waiting, not knowing what's going to happen, but to trust God who our faith is still in, even though our eyes do not see. To wait is difficult. And oftentimes we get sick of waiting and we try to fix the problem ourselves, and like this covenant family, we cause more problems than we originally started with. But thankfully, God is faithful to his people. He is faithful to his promises. He picks up the broken pieces of the bad choices. I hate waiting. I eat early. If we're going to go out to dinner, we're eating early because I hate waiting. I will race people in the parking lot. If I see someone headed to the door, I will tell Lisa, pick it up. We got to get there. I don't want to wait. I hate waiting for anything. I am a child of America. I want immediate gratification. I want absolute convenience. I think my Well, everyone hates waiting. It's difficult. It's painful. But God calls us to wait because when we wait, we have an opportunity to experience Him in a new way. When we wait in the midst of suffering and trial, we have an opportunity to actually enjoy Him in a unique way where His covenant presence, His covenant faithfulness will be revealed. Waiting tries our character so we become more faithful Christians. This is why James says in chapter one, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that you attesting of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. God's will is not the easy route. God hasn't promised us prosperity. There are more promises for Christians to suffer than prosperity. All Scripture is telling you how to suffer well and that God will bring suffering. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you will have to follow him in suffering. And the good news of that, friends, is that you will also follow him in his resurrection and that God will give you a special presence in the midst of that suffering. God doesn't desire an easy life for you. God does not desire a prosperous life for you. God desires a life where you will grow and be a more faithful Christian. God desires a life for you where you will learn to trust Him and rely upon Him. God desires a life for you where you will learn to experience more of His glory, more of His love, more of His faithfulness, more of His care, more of His kindness, more of His comfort. And when that usually happens, it's under the trial. When that usually happens, it's in the difficult Situations. So we have social norms today, and I think this text calls us to test those social norms. The conventional wisdom of that day said to take this woman and have a child through her. What Avram did was socially acceptable. You know what's socially acceptable today? To take every opportunity you can to earn more money and progress in life. Conventional wisdom today will always say, take the easy road, take the way, but you're going to get a promotion and you're going to get more money and you're going to find more prestige and more prosperity. That's conventional wisdom today. And that conventional wisdom is opposed to the will of God. Yes, God opens some doors, but every opportunity isn't an opportunity from God. Instead of always asking, how can I progress and work in prosperity? and get more money, we should be asking, how can I progress in godliness? Instead of choosing a job because it's going to give you money, why don't you choose a job based upon where you can go to church? God desires that you'll be in a family of God where you'll learn the Word of God and you'll hear the Word of God more than He cares for your cash flow. How often do you stop and pray over the opportunities God gives you rather than jump into the promises the world has. If you want to test your ability to trust God, here's two tests I came up with. How much do you pray about your troubles? How much do you pray about the concerns or even the opportunities that rise in life? How much prayer do you commit to seeking God's will in the midst of trials or in the midst of prosperity? I'm a fixer. I love fixing things. When there's a problem, I want to go out and I want to get my hands on it. I want to fix it. And as I'm, well, here especially as your pastor, I'm learning that that is not the way I need to be. I think most men have the tendency to be fixers. This is why most of our prayer warriors are typically women. Instead of fixing things ourselves, why don't we trust God to fix them? Now, we don't want to adopt some kind of let go and let God mentality. We don't want to lose our responsibility. But whenever something needs fixing, do we pray for God to fix it first before we start getting our dirty, sinful hands in the middle of it? How much do you pray to God about your troubles? How often do we quickly jump to fix them rather than trusting God to fix them first? The second one is, how much do you rely on the perfect work of Christ? Do you think you need to be a certain kind of person before you become a Christian? Do you think you need to have a certain kind of life, a certain kind of commitment, a certain kind of look? Do you think you need to get rid of certain sins before Christ will love you enough to die on the cross for you? Now, we're not offering free tickets to heaven if there's anyone who wants to grab the ticket. But too often we think we need to be a certain kind of person before we come to Christ. Friends, you're a dirty sinner. We're all dirty sinners. We're all filthy in our sin. We're all deserving of the wrath of God. And nothing can make us better. Nothing can make us better to approach God other than Jesus Christ Himself dying on our sin, removing the wrath, giving us new life, giving us new hope. Do you think you only deserve God's love if you are loving Him enough? God loves you because He loves you, Deuteronomy 7 says. That's it. You're not lovely. You never will be lovely. God loves you only because He has decided to love you. And you're only going to be forgiven for your sin, not because you get rid of it before you commit Jesus Christ, no, because you take it on, you put it on Jesus Christ. Do you trust Christ and His perfect work? Or do you think you need to have a certain quality of faith or a quality of life before His death and resurrection are effective for you? God does all the work. All we do is sit there and trust Him. And how sweet that is once we find out how to do that. Once we finally give up and start doing that. The second great thing we see about God, the first was He is faithful to His promises and patient with His people. The second thing is God sees His children in their distress. This reveals a very personal and caring God. He's a relational God who sees us, who shines His light on us. He's not a watchmaker. He's not some static eye in the sky. He sees everything. He sees it personally. And while this story emphasizes the comforting factor of that, well, it's also kind of scary, isn't it? He sees everything. He sees what you're daydreaming about right now. He sees how twisted and turned your heart has been even this morning. He sees your desires. He sees your thoughts. This is a scary thought, because he knows how sinful we are. He knows us better than ourselves. He knows how rebellious we are. And the beautiful hope and the fact that he knows how sinful we are and he sees our sin is that if we believe in Jesus Christ, he sees us forgiven in Jesus Christ. Here, we don't... The text doesn't focus on God seeing our sin. Our text focuses on God seeing our despair. It reveals a compassionate Father who loves His creation and cares for us. His eyes are on His people. Something that really is still startling to me as I've wrestled with this text. He doesn't remove her pain or suffering. He doesn't remove the trial that she's fleeing from. He only makes Himself present in the midst of that trial. He doesn't remove the suffering. He gives her great hope in the midst of suffering. This is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken. For we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. There's no promise that the sufferings are going to go away there. There's only promise. There's only a promise that the comfort from Christ, the comfort from God, the Father of compassion and mercy, He'll be present. There's a necessary connection between experiencing the suffering so that we might experience a divine, abundant comfort. Again, friends, there's more promises that you'll be persecuted and you'll suffer as a Christian than you'll prosper. Because it's whenever we're being despised, God reveals His love. It's whenever we're in pain that God gives us His balm. It's whenever we're broken that He proves Himself as the healer. It's whenever there's a heavy burden, He reveals His power. When we're in despair, He gives us His peace. When we're lonely, He gives us comfort and His presence. When we're forgotten, His eye is upon us. We live in a lonely world. There's lots of chatter in the world, but it's a lonely world. We have lots of Facebook friends and Twitter followers. And we think there's lots of conversations going on, but it's a lonely world. There's not real relationships. There's not real love and care. As one fellow, David Wells, recently said, everyone's talking, but no one is listening. Everyone is talking, but no one is listening. For God is watching. God is the one who sees and God is the one who hears. God is watching and He is listening and He is wanting to comfort you in the midst of your affliction. The question for you is, are you listening to God? In the midst of your trials, in the midst of your questions, in the midst of your difficulties, are you just talking? Are you actually listening to God? Because His Word is the one that matters. His Word is the one that's actually going to help and comfort and correct and guide. Are you listening whenever you're in difficult times? To Matthew 10, that God loves you. That God knows every hair on your head, which is more encouraging to some than others. Again, Romans 8.28, He is working all things for your good. What an amazing God of power. He can take the evil and the suffering that you're under and He can work it for your good. That's a loving power. God sees us when we need help. He sees us trying to help ourselves and He pities us. God sees us trying to help ourselves and He sees how futile that is. How worthless those struggles are. And He helps us in the midst of even that. To conclude, I want to focus on our day. A particular person that may be with us is a woman who is wrestling with infertility, like Sarah. You've had difficulty in childbearing. Maybe you've had miscarriages, or you've lost children, or you can't have children. God sees you. God sees the pain and the difficulty you're in. God wants to give you comfort in the midst of that pain and that difficulty. Wait on Him. Don't grow in frustration. Remind yourself through all scripture. Remind yourself by talking to the saints that are here with you. Remind yourself of his good promises that he loves you and cares for you. And his will is good and his word is good. Wait on him to shine his eyes on you and give you a sweet comfort in the midst of your trial. There are many mothers who are longing for their children to come to faith. You have children, but they're not believers. You have children who have denied the gospel. Don't lose hope. The gospel is powerful, friends. Pray for them. Pray for God's gospel to be heard by them and to be believed. And then, of course, there's our moms who are maybe at battle every day. I don't know how you want to describe. Many of our moms are enduring trials and sufferings as they train up their children. It's a thankless job. It's a difficult job. To try to love someone and care for someone who doesn't understand how much love you're giving them. To try to love a child that actually doesn't want to receive your instruction and your correction. Whenever you're trying to love your children, mothers, and your child is fighting against your love, remind yourself that you're like that to God. Let that be a gospel moment. You're fighting against God way more than your child is fighting against you, and He loves you way more than you love your child. Let that be just a sweet gospel moment for you as you're fighting and wrestling with your child for them to be obedient and to respect you. Persevere in loving your children. Know that God in his proverbs doesn't make absolute promises, but he does tell us we must train up our child in the fear and admonition of the Lord. We must seek diligently to pray for them. To work hard for their discipline and their correction. Let us all be challenged today in the way that God has called us to live. To realize that we fail miserably in keeping His Word. We fail miserably in trusting just His Word. Let us rejoice that He is faithful when we are faithless. Let's go to the Lord and pray. We thank you, Father, for sweet passages like this. where Your love to Hagar shines so brightly that she is encouraged and she returns to suffering because You have told her to. She trusts Your Word. She knows Your comfort. She knows Your care. Father, I pray that we will be a people that have our hearts illuminated by Your Spirit so that we see You. We see Your love. We see Your comfort. We see Your care. Let's believe Your Word, Lord. Help us, Lord, to not be like Abraham and Sarah, who fail, who fail over and over again. But Lord, I thank You, Lord, even in the midst of our failure, Your love overcomes. Your love guides us, protects us from even our own decisions. Your love saves us.