Tuesday, January 14th

What do you do when things just aren't going well in your life?  Sometimes it seems like it can go from a really bad day to an awful week.  There's no stopping that, girls, for that is life.   Circumstances aren't always fair; people aren't always kind; and quite frankly, it can seem like the battle just isn't worth fighting.  But it is.

I'm not going to tell you the name of the young woman in the Bible that I am referring to yet, but I will tell you her story.

Born into a poor family, her lot in life was to be a servant.  I wonder if she ever thought that wasn't fair??  After being sold to a wealthy family, she was forced to leave her home country of Egypt to travel to the homeland of those whom she would serve.  Imagine, leaving behind your family to be a servant!  She had no way of knowing whether she'd ever see her loved ones again.  Surely she cried in anguish about the unfairness of it all.  What a life, right?  Her woes didn't stop there.  She was given the news that she would now be required to marry an 86-year-old man and have his child.  In our culture, this is so foreign and hard to imagine.  But, in middle-eastern culture during this time period, it wasn't uncommon at all.  This particular young woman obeyed what her owners asked of her and bore a son.  Even then though, it still got worse.  After her son was 14-years-old, her owner's wife miraculously also had a little boy.  When the new baby boy was born, the servant girl and her son were put out of the home.  As this woman drudged through the blazing hot desert sand with a teenage boy in tow, she  cried out in anguish.  Finally, with her water supply gone, she left her son under a bush to die and found a place where she wouldn't have to watch him take his last breath.  But...he didn't die.  In fact, The Lord spoke plainly to Hagar,

Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. Genesis 21:18

Just when Hagar thought her circumstances couldn't get any worse, they did.  Sold as a slave, torn from her family, forced to marry an old man, and now kicked out of her home with nothing more than a loaf of bread and a bottle of water, if anybody ever had a right to cry out, "But, it's not fair!", surely she did.  And, if Hagar had insisted on wallowing in self-pity, she might have missed the saving voice of God.  

Her life's lot wasn't of her choosing; yet, God's hand was in the middle of it all.  The circumstances of your life may not be what you'd like.  But just as the Lord knew of Hagar and her mistreatment, He knows where you are.  And, He won't let you down.  Had Hagar never been sold as a servant and forced to leave Egypt, she may have never come to know the true God.  She likely would have continued with her pagan,  idolatrous worship,  God used her circumstances to draw her to Himself.  He will use the unfair things in your life, too, girls.   He'll use those things to shape you, to humble you, and to direct you.

Scripture Reading for the Day:

Proverbs 14
Titus 2