“The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord will answer my prayer.” Psalm 6:9
We have a God who hears. When we are heard, we’re acknowledged and validated as a person. We aren’t an invisible blob in a mass of humanity. We have worth and value. Our words matter.
Elijah was brazen enough to mock the prophets of Baal for the lack of response from their god. “‘You’ll have to shout louder,’ he scoffed, ‘for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!’” (2 Kings 18:27).
Whereas our God hears even the pleas of the foreign maidservant, Hagar. She is pregnant with Abraham’s child when she runs away from Abraham’s family. She finds herself in the desert where she meets the angel of the Lord who tells her to go back to Sarah. The angel of the Lord also tells her that she will have a son who she is to name Ishmael which means “God hears” (Genesis 16:11).
Everyone else in Hagar’s life ignores her worth. She lived in a culture that valued free, Jewish, men and she was none of these things. But God truly saw and heard her. He validated her as a person. Hagar created some of her own problems and some were inflicted on her by others. Either way God sees, hears and understands. Likewise, God hears and answers our prayers. But perhaps, not always in the way, we would like. Hagar may not have relished the idea of returning to Sarah.
David, Hagar and Elijah teach us that we have a God who hears the cries of the neglected, the forgotten and the overlooked.
Let’s pray
Thank you Lord that my words matter to you. You want to hear from me. Right now, I acknowledge I am heard.
In Jesus’ name
Amen
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