Commend It To God’s Care, Evans Olang

Genesis 21: 14-19, “…Then she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba”

I would like to take a few moments to minister to the single mothers. Parenting becomes manageable when two parents are present to raise their child or children. Each parent has a responsibility in the life of the child or the children they have. There are things the Father will teach better than the mother and there are things the mother will do a better job than the father. So together they team up to bring the child in the fear and the knowledge of God. It becomes a greater challenge when the mother has to play both the role of the father and the mother in the life of the child or the children. Without the male figure in the home, how would they instill some of the Father like values?

Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant was cast out by Sarah. She was forced to leave the home she had always known. She had a job that paid her dues. She had a man in her life Abraham she looked up to as her lord and master. She had all the protection she needed not forgetting the presence of people to comfort her. Trouble continues when after having giving birth to a son, 14 years later Isaac the promised son is born. She is cast out with her son because they were considered a threat. Having been pushed out, she was given a little bread and water and left to wander in the wilderness with her teenage son. Life is cruel right? someone wrote a book entitled, “Life is not fair but God is good“. What life presents to you does not change the goodness of God. His goodness does not depend on what you and I are facing every day. It may be tough and you may be thrown out like Hagar but He is still good. And some of you single mothers have come from having enough to barely making it. You are in some type of wilderness with no support, with less people to encourage you. You have a child or children to raise and cannot provide for them their needs, time, values like you would want to. You try your best and then there comes those times you throw your hands up and tears run down your cheeks. I have a message for you, God knows where you are and where you are going.

Genesis 21:15-16, “15 And the water in the skin was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs”. 16 “Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said to herself, “Let me not see the death of the boy.” So she sat opposite him, and lifted her voice and wept.” Paul did everything he could do for the churches he wrote to. He had taught them, prayed for them, preached to them, guided them and after he had done all, he commended them to God.

To commend is to commit to the care of another. What do you do when all you have done is all you could do?, commend it to God’s care. God gives you the ability to do your part then He intervenes to do His. Hagar had provided for her son, cared for him, protected him, was there for him. The new situation is so rough that she can’t stand to see her son in this condition. In the midst of her situation, the Lord intervened, vs. 17-18, “17 And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. 18 Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.” 19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink. 20 So God was with the lad; and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. 21 He dwelt in the Wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt”

I know some of you mothers have done the same for your children. It has reached a time you have to release them but it’s hard. Instead of worrying of what might happen to them when they are in school, play ground or any other place, commend them to God. Lay hands on them and pray for them. Praying for them is commending them to God. Commend your tough time to the Lord, Commend your less than enough to the Lord. Remember that God knows where you are and where you are going. God made a way where there seemed to be no way for Hagar and her son in the wilderness. Before you even got to the situation, He already provided away out. Commend everything to Him. Blessings Ev