What is the Lord saying to you today? In prayer we not only talk to God. We also listen. Mostly, we listen. "He speaks and the sound of his voice is so sweet, the birds hush their singing.. He walks with me and talks with me and tells me I am his own . . ." The Lord's message changes everything!
After the angel of the Lord instructed Hagar to return and promised her numerous descendants, he became more specific. "You will give birth to a son." In the old days, before reveal parties, before sonograms, people did not know the gender of their children until birth. Hagar knew she was pregnant, but now she knew she would have a son. This one fact gave her some financial security. The Lord even named her boy, "Ishmael," because he had heard her misery.
What would Abram and Hagar's boy be like? Like a wild donkey of a man. In what way? His hand would be against everyone. He would live in hostility toward all his brothers. Some people can make half the people angry. Ishmael would make everybody angry. To quote an old football movie, he would be "mobile, agile, and hostile." This does not sound like good news in itself. But there was comfort in hearing God's voice.
One Christian leader says she agonized over what God wanted her to do with her life. She fell asleep and awakened with this word: "Do whatever you want to do, but belong to me." As we pray, God tells us what we need to know, when we need to know it. We don't need full disclosure of every detail. Neither does God conceal the information we need to go forward. Safe to say, we know enough to obey God today. He gives enough light to take the next step. Will we take it?
