What does a room full of teenagers need to know about God? 

 

That was the question I kept asking myself as I was prepping for our first breakfast club. 

 

It felt like a big and daunting question because God is BIG.

It also felt like a big and daunting question because of the audience. If you have a teen, you know exactly what I mean by that statement. 

 

What does a room full of teenagers need to know about God? 

 

I prayed and fasted over the answer and I heard this: they need to know that God is El-roi, which means, “the God who sees me.” 

 

I knew exactly where to go in the Bible: Genesis 16. I’ve read the story so many times, my pages practically fall open to that place. Here’s the storyline:

Abram and Sarai get tired of waiting for the child God promised them and decide to take matters into their own hands. Sarai gives her servant girl to Abram, urging them to have sexual relations so that she could finally have children. It doesn’t go great, as you can imagine – love triangles always get messy.  The servant girl, Hagar, gives major attitude, and Sarai ends up badly mistreating her. She is so horrible to Hagar, that the poor servant girl runs away to the desert. She is pregnant, alone, and distraught when God shows up. The Word says that God saw her, sent an angel to be with her, and then told her about his plan to bless her. Hagar’s encounter with her heavenly father renews her spirit and she gives God a special name, “Elroi.” 

The God who sees me. 

It makes me cry every time. A servant girl. In the desert. Alone. With nothing. A nobody. 

And the God of the Universe saw her. 

And not only did he see her, he knew her and he went to her and he had good things planned for her. 

Isn’t that an amazing thing about God? He holds the whole world in his hands, yet he sees and tends to every single person. 

We don’t have to be rich, famous, good looking, funny, or successful either. We can be struggling, messy, crabby and broke. He sees and knows and has plans for every person.

 

That’s an amazing kind of love. 

 

It struck me that the same love that God demonstrated for Hagar holds true for every teenager at breakfast club. Even though today’s teens are more connected on social media than any other generation, statistics show that we are losing them in epidemic proportions to anxiety, depression and suicide. 

They feel alone. 

They are in the desert. 

They are just like Hagar. 

They need to know about the God who sees, knows, and has good things planned for them because those three simple truths lead to HOPE. 

 

Friends, can I ask you a question? Who is the Hagar in your life? Who could use the hope that these three simple truths provide? Will you step out and share this life-giving truth with them?

 

As always, I love hearing from you. Email me or comment on the blog and I will get on my knees for you. Let’s do this faith journey together.