The God Who Sees me

I have a friend ministering in a foreign country. This country is on day 19 of lockdown due to COVID. It is taking its toll on our friend as I’m sure it is on many others. Leaving their residence is limited to within about a third of a mile which is pretty limiting. Someone else close to us who has been on furlough due to COVID is now waiting as the company is starting permanent layoffs. Many of this person’s co-workers have already been let go, and they are waiting to see if they will get the call too. A friend is likely in an abusive relationship and still tied to past abusive relationships. She desires to honor God but is hurting, on an emotional roller coaster and trying to protect her children.

I know there are many more situations out there. We can wonder, “God are You there? Do You see me?” In the Psalms we hear the Psalmists cry out to God asking if He has forgotten them (Psalm 13:1-4; 42:9-10). As isolated and overwhelmed as we may feel, we are not alone in feeling alone in our trials, and we are not, in truth, ever alone.

This week when I read that it was day 17 (at the time) of lockdown for my friend and she was asking for prayer, I thought of Hagar. Let me give a quick background. God called Abram and promised that He would make Abram into a great nation, make Abram’s name great and that Abram would be a blessing (Genesis 12:2; 15:4-5) and also promised him the land which would become Israel. Abram (75 years old) and his wife Sarai were old and barren. About ten years later, Sarai, still barren, decided to take matters into her own hands and told Abram to take her maidservant Hagar to produce an offspring. Yeah, BAD idea.

Hagar got pregnant, but even before Ishmael was born to Hagar, it was not a happy household. In fact, Genesis says that after Hagar conceived, “she looked with contempt on her mistress (Genesis 16:4). Sarah complained to Abraham. He told her to deal with it. Sarah in turn was harsh with Hagar who refused to submit, so Hagar fled. Hagar was in the wilderness, pregnant and alone. An angel appeared to her telling her to return to Sarah and submit to her. When Hagar then called on the name of the Lord who spoke to her, she addressed God saying, “You are a God who sees me. Truly here I have seen Him who looks after me.”

In our trials, yes, we may want the situation to change, but we also want the comfort of knowing that someone sees us, sees our suffering, sees our situation, sees and cares. In Hagar’s story, we are comforted and encouraged because Someone does see us, sees our suffering, sees every detail of our situation, sees us and loves us enough that He sent His only Son that we could be forever reconciled to Him. He has given us His indwelling Spirit so that we are never alone. His Spirit comforts, guides and intercedes on our behalf before the Father.

In Psalm 13, the Psalmist asked how long the Lord would forget him? How long would God hide His face from him? How long would he have sorrow in his heart all day long? The Psalmist doesn’t record how long it was. Unlike Job, we don’t see God answering the Psalmist, but like Hagar, we see the Psalmist look to God’s character.

But I have trusted in Your steadfast love;

My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Psalm 13:5-6

In verses 1-4 the Psalmist is writing out of his emotions, how things feel to him and how his situation looks from a human standpoint. In verse 5, the Psalmist shifts his focus to God, His character and what he knows is true. Then he is able to praise God and remember and be thankful for all the good that God has done in abundance for him. The Psalmist’s circumstance hadn’t changed, but he was looking at the God who sees him. The one who loved him with a steadfast love. The one who is salvation.

In Psalm 42, the Psalmist has a back and forth conversation with himself as well as crying out to God. It is reflective of what most of us go through knowing truth but at the same time feeling overwhelmed with our circumstances and emotions. He begins with his longing for God as a deer pants after streams of water. He knows God is what his soul needs, yet he also confesses to God how he is feeling. His tears have been his food day and night. He remembers joyful times and then asks why his soul is cast down and in turmoil. He knows his hope is in God, his salvation and that he will again praise God. He purposefully brings God to his remembrance while still feeling as if ocean waters are crashing over him. Truths about God help stay him in his depression.

In verse 8, he says that the Lord commands His steadfast love, and at night His song is with him. The Psalmist is fortifying himself with more truth. Before the next wave hits, he calls God his rock, but then asks why God has forgotten him? Why does he continue in mourning because of the oppression of his enemy? His enemies taunt him with, “Where is your God?”

The final verse continues the two perspectives. The Psalmist again asks himself why his soul is downcast and in turmoil? And he again commands himself to “hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.”

Make no mistake, these times of a trial are a battle. They are times when the enemy will whisper lies and play on our emotions. Although God gives us emotions, they are not always reliable. In fact, Jeremiah says that the heart is deceitful above all things (vs 17:9). Repeatedly we will have to purposefully set our mind on God’s truth and take our thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Maybe right now you have the waves crashing over you and it is an effort to recall truth. Talk to or message a godly friend and ask them to pray for you and to remind you of truth. Have them send you verses that are visible truth to flood your mind and heart. If you are able, write out your own verses and stick them up everywhere.

Cry to God. He hears. He sees. He cares. You will never overwhelm Him with what you are going through. You will never chase Him away (Romans 8:31-39). He will never grow impatient with you or tire of listening to you. There is nothing you can say that the Father doesn’t already know or that will change your standing in Christ before Him. Jesus, who is at the right hand of the Father interceding for you, understands. On the cross He cried out to the Father, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46) In that moment, Jesus actually was forsaken in that moment, so that you and I never would be.

God sees you.