Overlooked: Finding Your Worth When You Feel All AloneSample

Day 3: The Big Ask

Hagar wasn’t the only one to encounter the seeing God in a transformative way. Scripture records many of these seeing moments: Moses at the burning bush, Paul on the road to Damascus, and even Jesus being baptized in the Jordan River.

In each account, God called the name of the one he saw.

Hagar, servant of Sarai!

Moses! Moses!

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.

But God didn’t stop with a simple recognition. In each case, he gave specific instructions. I like to call it the Big Ask.

Hagar was asked to return to her mistress. Moses was asked to deliver the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Paul was asked to evangelize to the Gentiles. Jesus was asked to endure through temptation, suffering, and eventually death as he fulfilled the purposes of his earthly ministry.

These things aren’t easy or short-lived. They require patience, submission, and humility. God’s Big Ask usually involves trading plans, status, comfort, and security for persecution, sacrifice, selflessness, and uncertainty.

Hagar was familiar with the worldly formula for obedience—obey to be accepted. But El Roi offered her a new perspective—obey because you are already accepted. God loved her first, regardless of her works. When God asked her to return and submit to Sarah, Hagar had a choice. And maybe for the first time in her life, this Egyptian servant chose voluntary obedience.

To return to Sarah meant Hagar chose to lay down her opportunity for physical freedom in exchange for the joy of serving the God who saw her heart and loved her first.

We don’t know if her situation changed. It’s likely Hagar struggled in a system of forced obedience to an unjust authority figure.

But Hagar’s eyes had finally beheld something worth living for. In her obedience, she declared this loving God was someone worth trusting and serving, even if that meant suffering. Hagar’s obedience was her tangible act of love expressed to a God who saw her in the wilderness.

What Big Ask is God calling you to today?

Lord, thank you for loving me first regardless of my works. You are worthy of my obedience and love. Strengthen me to follow you.