For 2020, I have chosen Isiah 41:10 as my personal verse. This lead into a theme for this year’s His Encouragement posts. Each week, I will be looking at another “fear not” of the Bible. I hope that as we journey together through these verses that we all will learn a little more about trusting God and rooting out the fear in our lives.

And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.

Genesis 21:17 KJV

Our next “fear not” in Scripture comes from the story of Hagar and Ishmael. If you know the story, you know that Abraham and Sarah got tired of waiting for God to fulfil his promise to give them a son, and so they jumped ahead of God’s timetable and decided Abraham would take Sarah’s handmaid, Hagar, to be his second wife and have a child by her. Abraham and Hagar have a baby and God names him Ishmael. 15 years later, God finally fulfills his promise to Abraham and Sarah. Isaac is born.

So then, this 15 year old kid has an attitude problem about the new baby and him and his mother are sent away by Abraham into the wilderness. At this point in the story, Hagar and Ishmael have used up all their food and water. Hagar puts her teenage son under a tree, then goes off by herself because she can’t stand to watch her son die of dehydration. Then God comes to her and says, “What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.” God hears the voice of the lad, then comes to Hagar tells her not to fear, then directs her to a nearby well. Ishmael later becomes a great nation.

Now, God had made a promise to bless any seed of Abraham, that included this one that should not have been born. It’s amazing to know that God keeps his promises even when we make a mess of things. What a blessing!

My favorite part of this verse though is that last line, “for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.”

Where He Is.

Like in this passage, God hears us where we physically are at. Our physical location. Whether that be in Timbuktu or Kalamazoo or the bottom of a well… No matter where we are, God will hear our prayers.

God will also hear us where we emotionally are at. How we are feeling. If we are triumphant and rejoicing or if we are down-trodden and depressed. God will hear our prayers in all our emotional states.

God will also hear us where we spiritually are at. If we’ve gone astray and made a mess of our lives, he will hear us when we call on him to make things right. He is always ready to forgive. He is always ready to direct us to a spiritual well of water (the living water = Jesus Christ) to quench our spiritual thirst.

What scripture is encouraging you today? Share it with us!

Check out these other blogs for more encouragement from God’s word for your Thursday.

Nicole @ Christian Fiction Girl

Trisha @ Joy of Reading

Jessica @ A Baker’s Perspective 

Jacquelyn @ A Heavenly Home

Becca @ The Becca Files

Jenny @ Author Jenny Lynn

Rebecca @ Rev. Rebecca Writes

Andi @ Radiant Light

Leslie @ Edits & Reviews by Leslie