are you ready?
June 28, 2009
READ: Acts 13:1-5
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work.” —Acts 13:2
Three months before a planned missions trip, a friend and I were talking about the upcoming event. He said to me, “If anyone can’t go, I’d be willing to step in and join you.” This was not going to be an easy 8 days, for we would be painting, repairing, and fixing stuff in the July heat of Jamaica. Yet my friend seemed eager to go.
About 6 weeks before we were scheduled to leave, there was an opening. I e-mailed my friend—whom I hadn’t seen in the interim—and asked if he was still interested. He immediately responded, “Sure! And I got a passport just in case you asked.” He had made sure he was ready—just in case he got the call to go.
My friend’s preparation reminds me of what happened back in the first century at Antioch. Paul and Barnabas were among a number of people getting themselves ready spiritually for whatever God might ask them to do, or wherever He might send them. They didn’t prepare by getting a passport, but they “ministered to the Lord and fasted” (Acts 13:2). And when the Holy Spirit said, “Separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work” (v.2), they were all set for the journey.
Are you preparing for what God might want you to do? When the Spirit says, “Go,” will you be ready? — Dave Branon
Keep your tools ready—God will find work for you.
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Loading ...the God who sees
June 28, 2009
READ: Genesis 16:1-16
Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me” (v.13).
Personal Locator Beacons (PLB) are distress devices built for people involved in land-based outdoor activities. They transmit radio signals that are detected by 12 Earth-orbiting satellites. The satellites relay signals to ground stations that process and determine the beacon location and to whom it belongs. The information is then relayed to search and rescue (SAR).
As useful as this device is, it wouldn’t have helped Hagar much. For no one seemed to care enough about her and her unborn child to monitor their location and progress in the desert. No one except El Roi, that is.
Genesis 16 opens up with Sarai scheming and piecing together a plan to help God fulfill His promise to make Abram’s descendants as numerous as the stars. But there was one problem—Sarai couldn’t get pregnant (v.1). She probably saw herself as the weak link in the chain of God’s plan, so she offered her maidservant, Hagar, to her husband. When Hagar became pregnant with Abram’s child and began to flaunt her “procreational” superiority in front of Sarai, Sarai became upset and began mistreating Hagar (v.6).
Hagar ran away to the desert, feeling hopeless and desperate. The angel of the Lord found her, asked her a couple of questions, and commanded her to give the child the name Ishmael (which means “God has heard your misery”). He then sent her back to Sarai. Before leaving that place, however, Hagar gave the name El Roi to the Lord which means, “You are the God who sees me.” It implied that God saw her situation with perfect clarity and that she was the object of His gracious attention.
In the desert of affliction and misery, trust that God sees your situation with perfect clarity and gives you His active presence (v.28:15), provision (v.20), and protection (Deuteronomy 2:7). —Marvin Williams
When have you doubted that God saw your situation with perfect clarity and provided His gracious attention? How did God remove those doubts?
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