The woman who named God, or the first person to give God a name for that matter, was Hagar. She was a woman in a crisis who ran away to the desert. In the desert, God came looking for her, and spoke to the broken, betrayed, pregnant woman who no one really cared about. The encounter with the Creator of the universe, changed Hagar's life, and in a way, the entire human history. For the first time in her life, she experienced love, that she is a valuable person, realised that her future is safe, that she and her unborn child will be taken care of. She gave a name to the God who saw her when no one else did, cared for her when no one else could not be bothered, and carried her out of the bottomless pit she was falling into... she called Him El Roi, which means "You are the God who sees me". Her words are captured in Genesis 16:13 "You are the God who sees me". "I have seen the One who sees me".
Psalm 139 says;
O Lord, you have search me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
You perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord
Before a word comes to my tongue he knows it COMPLETELY?
He knows my thoughts?
He is familiar with ALL my ways?
AND He still loves ME?
The Lord is speaking to my heart, "Yes, I know everything about you. I know you can’t be faithful. I know you can’t follow me with your strength. I know sometimes you don’t even like to be with me, but be somewhere else… I get you… that is why I come after you. I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I AM. I will never, never let you go.
El-Roi comes looking for me every time I fall, every time I fail, every time I can’t be faithful, every time I run away… He comes after me. And then I feel His love and His presence and I realize what a fool I had been trying to find joy, love, acceptance, recognition when I can find much, much more when I am lost in the heart of God.
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