- Genesis 16 Daily DEVO And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. Genesis 16:2 – Letting our desires guide us in life is a very dangerous way to live. We see that message being shown in this decision Abram made. While maybe a sexual desire was here as well, don’t be fooled into thinking that was the only desire leading Abram. The desire to make what God promised happen or the desire to have a child, those and others are at play here. Please understand, desires aren’t always bad, it’s bad though when we let them lead us rather than letting God lead us. Often our desires will conflict with the direction God wants to take us. We have to make the choice, satisfy the desire or seek out and follow God’s direction to meet our needs. Like in Abram’s story, both his desire and God’s plan for him would end up giving him a child so God was still wanting to meet Abram’s needs. God just had a better way of doing it and so is it with you. Stop letting your desires lead you, it will only mess things up. Seek out the direction of God over the desires of your flesh. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 496
- And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” Genesis 16:8 – Two great questions to ask of ourselves today. Where have we come from and where are we going? The first can have as many answers as there are people on earth. We can come from brokenness, abuse, blessing, a good family, a bad family, a Christian home, or one where Jesus’ name was never spoken. The list could go on forever with answers to the first question. The second though should only have one answer for us today. Where are you going? To Jesus. Sure we all started from different places, but where we are going should be the same. Into the arms of Jesus. Let’s then not be so caught up with the starting point of others. Yes they may have a starting point that’s pretty dark and scary, but what you only need to concern yourself with is where they are going. However you can, make sure the place those around you are heading toward is Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1820
- So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” Genesis 16:13 – In this chapter we get the story of Sarah and Hagar. Sarah, being unable at this time to provide a child for Abraham, takes matters into her own hands and tells her husband to have their God-promised child through her servant Hagar instead. In verse 13, we have the pregnant Hagar running away from the abuse she was experiencing by Sarah, and she is alone in the desert by a well. There we see an “angel of the Lord” come to visit her, which we believe to be a pre-incarnate Jesus visiting her. This is the first time Jesus shows up like this in physical form in scripture, and it’s not to a someone like Noah or Abraham, but to a servant girl, who acted pridefully, and now is running away from an abusive situation. This connects with the story within John 4 when Jesus shares for the first time to someone that He is the coming Messiah, and who does He do it with? A Samaritan woman, who was at a desert well in the heat of the day for she was trying to avoid others due to her sins of adultery. See from these passages that our God isn’t the type of God that only sees the powerful, holy, majestic type characters we see in scripture. He sees the servant girls, He sees the lonely, He sees the hurting, He sees those in sin, and He sees the ones far in the desert. We serve a God who sees, so know today that the Lord sees you. You may be in a place of blessing, or you may be alone by a desert well, and in both places you are seen by the God of seeing. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2822
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