#namesofGod2014//post 2

Hello from Starbucks again, my friends!  It seems as though this has become my only place to sneak in some blogging time as Jon and I are moving.  We officially leave post today, will stay the weekend with my family, and report to our next duty station on Monday.  So exciting!  Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers during Jon's deployment, and now as we experience our first PCS together.  It has been wonderful catching up with friends in the area over the past two weeks that Jon and I have had here.

Anyway, enough of that for now. :) I am so thankful for the study Rachel and Nicole are leading/hosting in our sweet blogging community.  Even if you ladies haven't had the chance to follow along this go round, I highly recommend it.  If you are going through the study with us, I sure hope you'll join us for the link-up that they're hosting today.  Just like some of you have said, I am a few days behind in the study as well, and I love that that's okay.  The point is not the speed at which we get through the study, but what the Lord is teaching us in the midst of it.  I am so thankful that He gives us freedom from the crazy timelines of this world.

A couple of days ago, I was reading through the section that talks about God as our El Roi, the God who sees.  Upon first glance, this didn't seem like any new, mind-blowing thing for me.  That is, until God breathed some major truth my way.  In studying our El Roi, Arthur had us look at the story of Abram, Sarai, and Hagar, particularly through the eyes of Hagar.  Now, I've definitely never been in a position like Hagar's, but we all have experienced what it's like to feel unheard or unseen despite our desperate attempts to be heard and seen.  Ah, sweet sisters, how this spoke to my heart.  

^"So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me." --Genesis 16:13

Oh my goodness, what a sweet message of promise this story offers us.  How desperate and deep the longing is in each of us to be heard and seen.  I'm so thankful to the Lord for unveiling the gravity of a longing I quickly overlook or don't understand. We are designed to desire this, but specifically desire it with our Father.  I can't quite describe with words the natural temptation to seek fulfillment in being completely heard and seen by my husband, my friends, my coworkers, my family.  While I am totally blessed with an amazing husband, friends, and family, they, like me, are sinners.  How wrong I am to seek or expect to constantly be fully heard, seen and understood by anyone or anything other than my mighty Creator.  Praise God for breathing truth that this desire is real and that it can only be fulfilled in Him.  How precious. How real. How faithful He is.

Just as Hagar was freed from her attitude of contempt toward Sarai because of what God revealed in Himself, I am so thankful for the freedom that God offers us as our El Roi.  Although the enemy, along with our flesh, will always attempt to deceive us, we are completely set free from the frustrations of ever feeling unseen.  What beautiful rest He offers us in the comfort of knowing that He sees.  We need not ever fight to be heard or seen, sweet Sisters.  He always sees us exactly where we are.