** And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God that seeth me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? ** Genesis 16:13
The names of God help us to look deeper into who He is. Each of his names give us more insight into all that the Lord is capable of. Learning more about his names increases our faith. We learn about Jehovah-Jireh early on in our Bible. Hagar has run away from Sara because of how badly Sara treats her after giving birth to Abraham’s son, Ishmael. She is out in the wilderness, with a small child, and has no idea how she will take care of her baby. She is young, afraid and desperate and then she has her own personal encounter with God.
God talks to her, comforts her, gives her promises regarding her son, takes care of her needs, tells her what to do in her difficult situation and leaves her to now walk in faith, trusting all that He told her and did for her.
Many years ago, when we had just come to know the Lord, my husband and I were poor. Very poor. We had very little income and we were in debt. Before our conversion, there were days when we literally had nothing to eat. After our conversion, we never went hungry but neither in the beginning were the cupboards full. But we were filled with hope and were hungrier spiritually than physically. We had little, but we were expecting our first child and we felt full from all that we were learning in our new life with the Lord.
Once our daughter was born, we received a little help from the government, so we had the basics like milk and fruit and veggies and formula for our little girl. But there was never enough for more than the absolute basics. We would even bake our own bread because it was cheaper than buying grocery store bread, ( and it was tastier). We ate a lot of bread back then. 🙂
Being so new to the things of the Lord, I honestly didn’t know that I could pray about our situation. We were learning so much about Him, but I had no idea we could put our hardship in the Lord’s hands.
Because I was caring for our newborn baby, I didn’t go off to work. I did a few odd jobs for family and I was taking care of my nephew. My sister-in-law (L) was going through her own trials, so I helped her out by watching her son for free while she went back to school.
Every once in a while (L) would bring us a few groceries as a thank you for taking care of her boy. She had little herself, but she had and has a generous heart and knew the Lord longer than us.
One day, I was craving a hot fudge sundae. It was impossible for me to have one. We didn’t have enough money for the ice cream let alone all the toppings. But for some reason, I just really wanted one.
When my sister-in-law came to pick up her son, she had a bag of groceries to give us. I was grateful and expected there to be some spaghetti or vegetables or something like that in the bag. But when I took it to the kitchen, L told me that she had been praying about what she should buy for us that day and the Lord told her to buy us…..yes, you guessed it, HOT FUDGE SUNDAE FIXINGS!!!!!
I couldn’t believe it!! I think I cried. Remembering that day, still makes me want to cry. Not because I care about the Sundae, but because it was the day that I knew that the Lord was always near, always listening and was lovingly providing not only our needs but our heart’s desires. And for the first time since our conversion, I realized that I could ask the Lord for what we needed.
He had become my Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord who sees me and provides for me. He was more than the compassionate One who died for my sins. He was the One who was standing with me everyday. He was and is the One who continues to provide for us and sees our heart and fulfills our dreams. He is the One who has cared for our every need and many of our desires for more than two decades on the foreign field.
He is and will always be our Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord who sees me.