“The God Who Sees Me” – EL Roi (El raw-EE)

I’m sure you can think of times when God saved you from danger, sickness, or whatever. One of my remembrances happened Labor Day Weekend, 1966. My husband John and I had received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit early that year; Labor Day Weekend we were on our way from Ohio to Tulsa Oklahoma, with three children ages 6,5, 2 and a dog, so John could attend seminary at Oral Roberts University. At that time the only thing we could rent was a 4-wheel trailer (looked like a hay wagon) to put our belongings in, pulling it with our 1960 Chevy. Having sold all our household goods, except the living room furniture and kitchen stove, we piled the wagon full with the furniture, our children’s tricycles, hobby horse and other toys, suitcases, etc and covered it with a tarp. We looked like people I saw in the movie “Grapes of Wrath” heading west. Early Saturday morning as we crossed the Mississippi River into St. Louis someone pulled along side us and motioned that we had trouble with a wagon wheel. Back then everything closed on Saturdays and Sundays as well as the Monday holiday. We were scheduled to arrive at Centenary Methodist Church Sunday morning so John could be introduced as the new Youth Pastor. We pulled into a little gas station not having had breakfast yet, not knowing how long it would be before we could find a place to eat. The prospects of getting the wheel fixed or a new wagon was very dismal. This presented a lot of dilemmas for us. BUT the “God Who Sees Us” was there. First of all, He saved us from who knows what kind of disaster with the bad wheel then He provided the solution of fixing the wheel and there was a little grocery store around the corner where we were able to buy some food. We arrived at the church Sunday morning on time!! (Side note: the living room furniture and kitchen stove that we couldn’t sell were the only pieces the church was unable to find to furnish the house we were to live in.)

“An Egyptian slave, Hagar encountered God in the desert and addressed him as El Roi, “the God who sees me.” Notable, this is the only occurrence of El Roi in the Bible. Hagar’s God is the One who numbers the hairs on our heads and who knows our circumstances, past, present and future. When you pray to El Roi, you are praying to the one who knows everything about you. (Gen. 16:13-14)” Excerpt from Praying the Names of God by Ann Spangler.

Praise God: Because He faithfully hears ALL your prayers.
Offer Thanks: For His watchful care, timely help, and all the ways He has protected you.
Confess: The temptation to feel God has abandoned you even though He’s been faithful in
the past.
Ask God: To make you aware of His presence and that He is watching over you.

“Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God. We are the people He watches over, the sheep under His care.” (Psalm 95:6-7 NLT)