In Genesis 16, we find Hagar struggling with such thoughts. Put yourself in her place. Imagine that you are 14 years old and a servant to a very important woman. She has no children, but she doesn't treat you as a child who needs attention and love. She ignores you. Then, one day, because she is barren, she convinces her husband to have a child with you. Afterwards, she treats you worse than ever, even though you did what she wanted you to do. So, what else is there to do but run away? No one cares anyway.

While she is in the wilderness, the angel of the Lord comes to let her know that God knows all about her and that He is going to bless her through the birth of the son she is carrying.

Hagar can't believe it. Someone cares. She knows this Someone is the God Whom Abram and Sarai speak about.

Genesis 16:13 – She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me." (NIV)

Hagar now knows she isn't insignificant. Her misery, pain, and suffering are not only known to God, but He reassures her that He will always care about her. The Lord sends her back to Sarai and blesses her with a son, Ishamel, "the Lord hears".

On the days when we feel invisible, forgotten, and abandoned, let us remember that God sees us. He is there to protect us, guide us, and love us. There is not one thing that happens to us that He is not aware of. He will never take His love away or leave us or forsake us. He loves us with a love that is merciful, kind, and everlasting. He loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for us on Calvary.

Prayer: Father, remind us that we are not only always in Your sight, but also always in Your heart. You love us with an eternal love. You want only good for us. Help us to see You as a loving Father Who sees us and cares for us. Amen.

Have you ever gone into a circus fun house that has mirrors? They're not like regular mirrors that help us see a true-to-life reflection. I remember how they distorted my image and changed my shape and size. These mirrors made me appear taller, shorter, wider, or thinner depending on the mirror's shape. It was funny seeing a distorted image of myself. In the same way, we sometimes see only a distorted image of God.

Today's verse points out that we have only an imperfect, humanized picture of God's love. We know that His love is eternal, merciful, gracious, and perfect. However, some don't understand how it is that God's love could have sent Adam out of the garden, destroyed the earth with a flood, asked Abram to sacrifice Isaac, his son of the promise, allowed His people to forget Him in the Promised Land, and sent His only Son to suffer and be crucified. Those things, they say, couldn't show how a loving God acts.

However, we are looking at a blurred view of God's love. The sin Adam committed against the Lord destroyed God's image in us. Adam lost his privilege of seeing God face to face. Adam could no longer enjoy God's presence and love. Because God loved Adam, He did not allow Adam to die in sin and be separated from Him forever. Instead, God proclaimed a promise of a coming Saviour Who would bring His people back to Him. God allowed Noah to survive the flood and begin to populate the earth again, placing His rainbow as a sign of His promise not to destroy the earth in a flood again. God provided the sacrifice in Isaac's place. God sent judges, kings, and prophets to guide His people. Then when the time was right, God sent His Son to die for our sins.

When we come to the saving power of Jesus, then we can begin to understand God's love. We can know that when difficulties come our way, God doesn't send them. He does allow them in our lives, though, so we can understand more about His love. We go through some tough situations, but we are not alone. God's love is there guiding, protecting, and comforting us through all them. As we grow in Him, let us learn not to fear what may come, but to begin to comprehend the height, length, breadth, and depth of His love.

Prayer: Lord, help us to know and accept Your love that is beyond our understanding. Thank You, Lord, that one day, we will no longer see only in part, but we will see You in the fulness of Your eternal love. We will see You as You are. We will experience Your complete, perfect love because of Jesus. Amen.

On New Year's Eve 2023, 48 per cent of the people who made a resolution said they resolved to improve fitness. These people resolved to be more fit by exercising, walking, and spending more time being active.

In contrast, however, in today's Scripture, we read that being godly is better than being physically fit. God doesn't say that we should not exercise physically. He only emphasizes that we need to remove the spotlight on the physical and concentrate on the spiritual. Godliness — spiritual exercise — not only gives us a better life now, but it also helps us to be prepared for eternity. Working out and exercising takes dedication, strength, and determination, and so does spiritual exercise.

Some people spend up to eight hours a week working out. Just as people spend different amounts of time doing different types of exercise, so we, too, should spend time on different spiritual exercises. One of these exercises is knee bends. We must be willing to kneel and bow down before God our Maker in worship. We must humble ourselves before the Lord, asking for forgiveness and His mercy. When we kneel before God, we can stand against anything.

Another exercise that is beneficial is walking. We must be willing to walk in a manner that is worthy of the Lord. We must walk in the light, on the straight path, keeping our eyes on the Lord. We must walk in faith, trust, love, and obedience to the Father. Jesus told us that He is the Way, so we must walk where He leads us. Also, when we walk, we must wear a pair of good shoes. We read in Ephesians 6:15, "Wear shoes on your feet which are the Good News of peace." (NLV) Therefore, we must read the Word of God and allow it to become the lamp unto our feet and the light to our path.

Prayer: Father, help us to exercise daily so we can become spiritually fit. Help us to spend time with You in Your Word and to bend our knees in humility and worship. Help us to walk in Your way and to exercise spiritually every day, so that we can live each day in hope and strength, and walk with You until You take us to live with You forever. Amen.

James 1:17 – Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (KJV)

During the Christmas season, one of my students asked me why we give gifts for Christmas. I explained to her that we give to remember that God gave us the most wonderful, perfect gift. He gave us His only Son, Jesus, because God loves us so much that He didn't want us to go to hell. Jesus gave us the gift of salvation by willingly going to the cross to die for us. No one took His life; Jesus gave it. Because we are grateful to God for this wonderful gift of love, we want to show our love to others by giving them gifts.

We take our time finding the perfect gifts for those special people. We look for ones that fit their personality and will be something they really want. Often, it is a difficult task to find those gifts. However, God knew that His gift would be perfect for everyone and anyone. God gave the gift of salvation to the world. Jesus willingly gave His life as a gift for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus didn't wait for us to deserve the gift — like Santa does — because even "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8 KJV)

Jesus has His arms stretched out, waiting for us to take the gift that He is offering. It is the perfect gift:

• It benefits all people.
• It is eternal.
• It is life, joy, and peace.
• It heals broken hearts and fixes shattered lives.
• It is wrapped in perfect love.
• It is guaranteed to enrich all mankind.
• It will allow us to spend eternity in heaven.
• It is free!

It is the perfect gift that God gave a lost and undeserving world, but it is the perfect gift only if it is received. We decide whether we want to accept the gift that Jesus offers, or to ignore Him and walk away. We decide if we want to have eternal life and peace of heart and mind, or if we want to continue with life our way — but that way leads to eternal death. God freely gave; Jesus freely gave. Jesus is the perfect gift because although He is holy and without sin, He chose to become sin to free us from eternal death by giving us eternal life.

May we all see that, yes, Christmas means receiving the perfect gift — the gift of salvation — the gift of an abundant life full of God's love, mercy, goodness, and faithfulness here on earth, and eternal life in heaven with Him.

Prayer: Lord, help us to receive Your perfect gift, the only gift that brings true joy and satisfaction. Amen.

Like everyone else's, my days are full of decisions. What time do I want to wake up? What do I want to have for breakfast? What direction will I take to get to work on time? What am I going to do for dinner? Am I going to wash or iron? And so, my day goes on — so many decisions. I decide what I am going to do according to my priorities. How many are essential, and how many are not necessary? But most of them are not life-or-death decisions.

However, there are decisions that are life-or-death decisions. There are choices that are essential, and they are in our hands.

Deuteronomy 30:15 – See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil. (KJV)

The Israelites had to choose, and so do we. Do we want the blessed, holy, eternal life? Or do we want the sinful life of evil that brings death?

We can decide that life should be lived freely, with no limits on our actions. We can decide that the best person to guide our lives is self, and that we don't want to limit ourselves with rules, laws, or decrees. We can live "the only life we have" solely for our own pleasure, without any thought for others. Our attitude can be a desire for money, success, and fun, and not having to account to anyone for anything. But that way leads to eternal death.

Each day, we must decide whether we want to choose eternal life, to hear the voice of the Lord and live a holy life, set apart for His glory, letting His light shine in us so that the lost can see that we are different. We need to speak differently, think differently, behave differently, and demonstrate Christ's love in our deeds, words, and attitudes.

It is up to us to choose life or death, blessing or curse. God encourages us to choose life. "You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life." (Deuteronomy 30:20a NLT)

Prayer: Each day that begins has its decisions. Lord, each day, we need to choose to live for You, because that decision will affect not only the 24 hours given to us each day, but also our eternity. Help us to choose life, because we don't know how many days await us. Amen.

How many of us remember Clark Kent running after he heard a cry for help, grabbing his suit jacket, and removing it as he changed into Superman? He was leaving the mild-mannered, weakling Clark behind and becoming the powerful superhero. He acted afraid and confused as Clark Kent, but once he became Superman, no one could defy his strength and ability to solve any crime.

As Christians, we must also remove "the old man", who is weak and living in corruption and deceitful desires. The corrupted, deceitful, "old man" depended on pride, a job, money, success, intelligence, and his instincts. We must remove the "jacket" that keeps us from letting God change us into the new creation who lets God work through us with His superpower. God is never going to lead us where He hasn't already prepared the way and obtained the victory.

As we let go of the "old man", which makes us weak and confused, we can allow God to work in us — renewing our mind — and go out to confront our enemies in His righteousness and true holiness. He has given us the superhero "suit", the armour of Christ, which helps us to withstand the power and wiles of Satan and to stand firm in the Lord.

Ephesians 6:10-11,13 – Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceit of the devil. For this reason take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on the evil day. And having finished all things, stand fast. (RGT)

We are not asked to fight the battle ourselves. We are asked to stand firm, believing in His power and might to fight and win the battle for us. God is the superhero, Who cannot be defeated.

Prayer: Father, help us to take off the old man and be clothed in the new man. Help us to let go of our own might and strength and put our entire being in Your hands. Help us to remember that we are weak, but we don't have to depend on our own strength when we have You, the Lord of heaven's armies, the almighty God, by our side. Amen.

Sometimes, when I used to see students carrying heavy backpacks to school and everywhere they went, I wondered what was so precious that they wouldn't let it go. I imagine that the things that they carried back in those days were their phones, tablets, compact disc players, and video game players. These were things that they could not have on their desks or they would be confiscated. Even though they knew that these things were to remain in their backpacks and couldn't be used at school, they continued to carry them in their backpacks.

Like those backpacks, we tend to carry our anxieties and worries with us. They are heavy burdens that weigh down our mind, emotions, and body. These worries weigh us down because every day we pick them up and take them everywhere that we go, and they are continuously in our minds and hearts. We are so used to carrying them that we forget that Jesus said, "If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28 CEV) When we empty our hearts, minds, and lives of worries and anxiety, we will be able to fulfil the apostle Paul's admonition:

Philippians 4:8-9 – Finally, my friends, keep your minds on whatever is true, pure, right, holy, friendly, and proper. Don't ever stop thinking about what is truly worthwhile and worthy of praise. (CEV)

Only then will we experience God's peace that surpasses understanding.

Because we like to be in control of our lives, however, most often we don't want to surrender our hurts, anger, anxiety, worries, and problems to the Lord. We are like two-year-old children who insist on putting on their own socks and shoes, no matter how difficult it is. We stubbornly hold on to our burdens, determined that we can do it ourselves. It seems that we may even feel that if we turn all our worries over to God that He will begin to manipulate us, or that we will become puppets. So, we keep carrying our backpacks full of worries and problems. God loves us. God wants us to let Him free us completely so that we can be free indeed. The Lord doesn't want us to be burdened. He wants us to be safe, protected, and covered in His loving-kindness and loyal love.

Prayer: Lord, help us to give You our heavy backpacks of worry, anxiety, hurts, anger, and problems that are in our minds and hearts every day, so that we can find rest for our souls. Encourage us with Your faithfulness, mercy, compassion, and love. Fill us with Your peace and joy so that we can cheer and shout in victory. Amen.