The Road to Emmaus. A daily devotional for the Forestdale Community Church

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Sheena Ramsey
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1 The Road to Emmaus A daily devotional for the Forestdale Community Church October 24-28, 2016

2 This week in Stillness & Silence Our Scripture this week is about the Angel of the LORD, who went and found Hagar in her distress, and spoke to her of a future and a hope. Hagar then gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: The God who sees me. ( El Roi in Hebrew) In your moments of stillness and silence this week, rest in the God who sees you: Sit down and take a few deep breaths to settle into silence. Say to the Lord in faith: You are the God who sees me. Repeat that line as you breathe in and out. Rest in the truth of that statement for a minute. Open your life to God s sight. Welcome Him in. Now you are ready to begin.

3 Monday: Making the Connection Scripture Genesis 16:7-8 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going? This is the first mention of the angel of the Lord in the Bible. The word angel means messenger. The angel of the Lord carries a special revelation & the very Presence of God. It is because the angel is both different from God, yet manifests God s word & Presence, that our faith sees this special angel as a prefigured Christ. Just as Jesus engaged the outcast Samaritan woman at the well with a simple question ( Will you give me a drink? ), the angel of the Lord asks the outcast Egyptian maidservant where she s been & is headed In both cases these simple questions lead to special revelations. Jesus reveals His true identity to the outcast at the well, and the angel reveals Hagar s true destiny, beginning with the command to return & submit to Sarai. After 10 years in the Promised Land without the promised child, Sarai & Abram had faltered in their faith. They conspired with Hagar to take the initiative rather than persevere. Hostility, blaming, resentment and betrayal were born with Ishmael and continue among his posterity & God s people to this very day. Nevertheless, in God s naming the child Ishmael ( God hears ) and in Hagar s naming the angel ( the God who sees me ) we are reminded that while our faith sometimes falters, God always perseveres with us and commands us to do the same with Him. Question: Has God stayed with you when your faith faltered? Prayer: Lord Jesus, I believe You know me & love me, yet help me in my unbelief! Amen.

4 Tuesday: Prayer Scripture Genesis 16:1 Now Sarai, Abram s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar, so she said to Abram, The Lord has kept me from having children Go, sleep with my maidservant, perhaps I can build a family through her. If this were a TV show, you d be shaking your head right now and yelling at the character, No! Don t do it!! You are headed for trouble! And as you read on, you see that Sarai s plan doesn t meet her needs like she thought it would. All the players in this drama end up miserable. But why? What went wrong? Sarai took matters into her own hands. She saw God s lack of action as a roadblock to her happiness and instead of going to God in prayer about it, she decided to make things happen! Had she thought to pray and wait on the Lord for his timing, so much pain could have been avoided. Question: Have you ever wanted something so badly that you were determined to make it happen, ignoring the costs and just pushing forward? Prayer: Lord, I admit that I am often impatient. I know you have a plan for me, a plan for good and not for harm. yet sometimes my desire to have things happen as I wish them to, becomes the loudest thought in my head. In those moments, Lord, save me from myself. Call me back to You. Remind me to pray. And in doing so, let me prayerfully lay my will at your feet. Amen.

5 Wednesday: Rest Scripture Gen: 16:7, 8 and 13 7 Then the angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. The angel of the Lord asked her, 8b where are you going? I m running away from my mistress Sarai, she answered. Hagar speaks to God again in verse 13. She says, 13 "You are the God who sees me I have now seen the One who sees me. Let s first notice where this takes place. I love the clarity of the location: beside the road to Shur. These scriptures are factual accounts, not fairy tales. What did Hagar experience there? After she conceived a child with Abram, Hagar was frantic, running to get away from her mistress Sarah. But then things changed. Hagar meets God. The scripture says, The angel of the Lord found her. That means God Almighty found Hagar! Just like the woman at the well, Hagar recognizes the God who sees her. She knows He sees everything she is going through. She obeys God s commands and names her son Ishmael (which means God hears ). And when she heard the voice of her Heavenly Father, Hagar realized that she could truly rest in His faithfulness and guidance, and feel His unconditional love. Question: No matter what you are going through, can you rest in your Heavenly Father? What do you need to trust God with today? Prayer: Lord God, help me be ever mindful that you are the God who really sees me. Thank you for making it plain to see the One who sees me. Help me find rest by allowing Your sovereign power to guide my path. Help me trust Your wisdom and be thankful because Your love is great, higher than the heavens. Amen.

6 Thursday: Relationship Scripture: Genesis 16:7 & 16:9 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. Then the angel of the Lord told her, Go back to your mistress and submit to her. What stands out in verse 7 are the words, The angel of the Lord found Hagar. Before this appearance, Hagar had been used as a solution to Sarai and Abram s problem of having no heirs. Next she became the scapegoat for all of Sarai s anger toward her husband, as well as her own jealousy. Now she has run away, pregnant, to the desert. This appearance is showing us God s character in a physical form. Jesus, like this angel of the Lord, went out and found those who were hurt or rejected and gave them hope. Yet the angel of the Lord didn t stop there, he gives Hagar some surprising instructions. He tells her to go back to Sarai. In Jesus we are found, accepted, and forgiven. When we open our hearts to him daily, we find he will instruct us, too, and sometimes it can be difficult. He may ask you to forgive someone who has hurt you. He may ask you to apologize for the way in which you ve hurt someone else. Or it could be he s calling you to share your struggles with someone. Question: Has Jesus been putting a certain person or situation on your heart? Are you afraid to take those first steps? Prayer: Thank you Lord Jesus for coming to seek and save the lost (me). I need your help and guidance in my relationships. Please show me the next steps I need to take. Amen

7 Friday: Work Scripture: Genesis 16:9 9 Then the angel of the LORD told her, Go back to your mistress and submit to her. 10 The angel added, I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count. In the Hebrew language, the word angel means messenger. When Hagar spoke to the angel, she made this reply, You are the God who sees me, for she said, I have now seen the One who sees me. Hagar seems to refer to the angel in these passages as if the messenger was God Himself. Could this angel be a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus? When Jesus does appear in the New Testament, He is constantly teaching about God. He was always working to spread His message of salvation. He is the perfect role model in working as a messenger for the Father, Himself and the Holy Spirit. He set the tone for our work as he sends us out as messengers with the Great Commission: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. It isn t always an easy task, but Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to guide us, pray for us, and speak for us when needed. Salvation involves more than just being a good person, and without messengers, those who don t know about Jesus, will never find out. Question: How can you work at becoming a messenger of Jesus so everyone you encounter can know His love, mercy, and grace? Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are the perfect role model for every aspect of our lives. Help us to be aware of your presence as we work on becoming better messengers for you. Amen.

8 This devotional writers this week are: Monday: Brad Edgerly Tuesday: Beth Govoni Wednesday: Nancy McLaughlin Thursday: Susan Matos Friday: Christine Bartholomew

Lesson 8 Genesis 16 and 17

Lesson 8 Genesis 16 and 17 First IBS Division: Genesis 16:1-16 Hagar and Ishmael 1 Now Sarai, Abram s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, The Lord has kept me from