Hagar's Well- Resources for the Single Mom


Genesis 21:19 And God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water..

I was a single mom for about ten years. Early in that leg of my journey, I made a commitment to Christ and started attending a vibrant church. Thankfully, I received solid teaching directly from the word and I learned to look to God as my provider.

At the time, I had a high school diploma, no skills beyond food service and basic customer service, and I had no plan. I had a job, but minimum wage was never meant to provide support for a family.  I depended on public assistance to supplement my meager income.

In the early 90's, there was a prosperity message that ran rampant in Pentecostal churches. The basic premise is solid-- God doesn't intend for His people to live in lack. Unfortunately, the message was often misunderstood.  God wants you to be rich!  You can claim your new car/house or whatever your heart desires!  Some people stopped focusing on God and started focusing on the 'stuff' they expected to gain.

As a new Christian, and as a mom who was barely making enough to cover the basics in life,  I was momentarily caught up in this twisted form of doctrine. I wanted a miracle! I wanted to open my mailbox and find a check for a large sum. I wanted a rich (handsome) man to sweep me off my feet and marry me. Maybe I could win the lottery or a rich relative would pass away and leave me their fortune. (Note: I have no rich relatives.)  You get the idea, I expected God to miraculously make me prosperous and I was waiting expectantly for that to happen.

One day, I was reading in Genesis about Hagar, the first single mother mentioned in the bible. She was left in the wilderness with her child and quickly ran out of resources. She'd been completely abandoned and feared her child was dying. Not wanting to witness her son's death, she placed him under a bush and left. Imagine yourself in her place! Imagine placing your child in another room because you didn't want to watch him die. Hagar cried out to God and he took compassion upon the child. The scripture says that God opened Hagar's eyes and she saw a well. That well saved their lives!

I studied that passage for a long time. It doesn't say that God miraculously created the well, and He certainly could have done that,  instead it says that He opened her eyes and caused her to see the well. In other words, the well was already there but she needed the Lord's direction to locate it. The resources she needed were already available but without God's leading she and her child would have perished! 

That revelation changed my life. I stopped looking for the miracle and started looking to my God for direction. Through His leading I began babysitting and cleaning houses to make ends meet. The schedule worked well to balance taking care of my children and soon I started attending college classes. A few years later, I earned my undergraduate degree and was hired for a professional position that paid three times the amount that I'd previously lived on.

It was not a quick and easy journey and there were many bumps along the way, but I give every bit of glory to my God for making my path straight. He opened my eyes and showed me the well!

If you have a need in your life today, I encourage you to look to our Lord.  Ask Him to show you the well!

No comments:

Post a Comment