Passage: Genesis 21:14-21

The Big Idea

God’s Word is a bundle of promises, an anchor that keeps us from drifting into panic. Abraham surrendered what he loved and sent Ishmael away, trusting God. But out in the desert, Hagar forgot the promise God had already given her and fell apart, even with a well just around the corner. God reminded her of His promise and opened her eyes. That’s how we minister to struggling people: not “try harder,” but “remember what God said.”

God’s Word Is Promises

The big picture of the Bible is relationship. Through this Book, a person can have a real, intimate relationship with God. God can lead a person, and break down walls in a heart that no one else could. And His tool for relating to people throughout history is called a promise.

A promise is a statement that you will definitely do something, or that something will definitely happen. When someone gives you their word, you know it’s for real.

God has given us His Word. It covers many things, and every bit of it is one hundred percent sure.

His Word = promises.
The Bible = God’s Word, God’s promises.
It’s solid ground to stand on, a firm foundation to build on.

It’s the fear of the unknown that gets us in trouble. When we don’t know what’s coming, most of us freak out.

Freaking out is normal for a lot of people.
For some, it’s practically a hobby.
Freaking out usually leads to things we regret.
Freaking out isn’t what God intends for us.

He’s given us His Word as an anchor for our souls, to keep us from drifting into the deep end.

Abraham Surrenders (Genesis 21:14)

(For context: after Isaac was weaned, Sarah saw Ishmael mocking and asked Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away. It troubled Abraham deeply, but God told him to listen to Sarah, because through Isaac his offspring would be named.)

Abraham got up early, took bread and a skin of water, put them on Hagar’s shoulder, gave her the boy, and sent her away. She wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

Abraham was now full of humility and faith, living in God’s favor. How do I know? Because he surrendered. He raised the white flag.

Surrender is the most complete picture of a life of humility and faith.
That’s how a person receives grace. God gives grace to the humble (James 4:6), and we have access by faith into grace (Romans 5:2).

Abraham didn’t delay doing what God told him. There was no fight in him, even though he didn’t want to do it. He loved his son.

Sometimes God asks us to surrender things we love, and it hurts. But God knows what He’s doing. He had a plan for both Abraham and Ishmael, and He has a plan for you. It will involve surrender.

You can go your own way, choose your own path and try to earn your own blessings. But God will be standing by, watching with a longing heart, hoping you’ll come to the end of your striving and come to Him for rest.

So God will often ask us to give something up: a pursuit, a desire, a dream, a hope, a right.

Abraham didn’t know this would become a picture, for all of God’s people forever, of how a believer treats the flesh.
He didn’t know his example would lead millions into a life of faith.
He didn’t know how God would work it out.
But he knew how much it hurt.
And he’d learned one thing: surrendering to God is more important than how I feel.

Nobody likes to surrender. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let’s keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:24-25).

It hurts. It kills. It’s like being nailed to a tree of submission. It’s like crucifixion.
And it’s a daily pain. Following Jesus kills me every day.
Abraham was learning to die daily with Jesus.

Why die? Because after we die to ourselves, we can be filled with the Spirit. And the Spirit has no problem surrendering to the Father; they’re one, with no difference in desire.

Test your life. Do you have the Spirit? Are you willing and able to surrender?

Couples: are you willing to surrender your right to be right, or served, or even loved, in order to honor God and keep loving and serving your spouse?
Employees: are you willing to surrender your pursuit of recognition, knowing God sees how you serve Him at work?
Parents: are you willing to surrender your own ideas about discipline and simply follow what God’s Word says?

Hagar Falls Apart (Genesis 21:15-16)

When the water in the skin was gone, Hagar put the boy under one of the bushes. She went and sat down about a bowshot away, saying, “Let me not watch the boy die.” She sat there and wept loudly.

Hagar had already met the Lord, but she’d forgotten what she knew about Him.

Remember her story. She came out of Egypt and was more or less adopted into Abraham’s household. Then she got tangled up in Abraham and Sarah’s lack of faith. Sarah turned harsh, and Hagar ran away toward Egypt. At a spring along the way, the Angel of the Lord met her and asked, “Where have you come from, and where are you going?” (Genesis 16:7-8).

“You came out of Egypt. Now you want to go back? They didn’t even want you! I want you, Hagar. I actually like you. Stay on My team.”

He told her to go back and submit. The way to fix things wasn’t running away; it was humility. And God promised her He would multiply her offspring and make her son a great nation (Genesis 16:10). And if God said it, God will do it!

That’s the promise Hagar should have been holding on to right then. She could have endorsed it and cashed it like a check! She didn’t need to worry. She could have been at peace, if she’d just remembered God’s promise and believed it.

Instead, she put the boy under a bush, sat down far away and wept.

Ishmael was a teenager, not a helpless baby.
They’d probably only been without water a short while.
There was a well right around the corner!

She was falling apart for no reason. She was out of control because she didn’t remember and believe God’s promise.

That’s how we fall apart too.

It isn’t really the stress of the world, or life, or how we were raised. Those are the outward things.
The real reason our hearts lose it is that we’ve decided not to believe, or we’ve simply forgotten, or never learned, the promises of God.

Remember what God has promised:

If we seek Him, we’ll find Him.
His love will never fail.
There’s blessing for all who delight in His Word.
There’s salvation for all who believe in His Son.
All things work together for good for His children.
There’s comfort in our trials; the deeper the hurt, the deeper the comfort.
He’ll finish the work He started in us.
There’s peace when we pray.
He’ll supply our needs.

We freak out when we don’t have these promises to stand on, because we feel adrift in an ocean of uncertainty. That’s not what God intends for us.

So Hagar was freaking out, while Ishmael was lying under the bush thinking, “Mom, stop it! Don’t you remember what God already told us? God, can You do something here?”

God Heard the Boy (Genesis 21:17-19)

God heard the boy’s voice. The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven: “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Get up, lift up the boy and hold him by the hand, for I will make him a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin and gave the boy a drink.

God heard the boy. (He agreed with Ishmael!)

“What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid!”

“If you’d just remember the promise! Here, let Me remind you.”

This is how to minister to people who are struggling to believe.

Not, “You’re crazy! Just have more faith, bro. Just be a better Christian.”
But remind them of God’s promises! All the thousands of them!
If you don’t know which promise they need, pray and open the Word, and God will show you. That’s how ministry works!

Put your own name in Hagar’s place: “What’s wrong, __? Don’t be afraid!”

Remember the promises. They set the heart right.

The only thing truly worth fearing is dying as an enemy of God. Compared to that, nothing else is all that important.

Then pray the promises. Let your conversations with God be about what He said He would do. Surrender your words to be words of faith, speaking His promises instead of foolish doubt.

Read the Word. Find your promise. Pray it. Remind God of it. Preach it to your own soul.

There was a well right around the corner. God’s provision is always hidden from the eyes of doubt and the flesh. We can’t see it. But it’s there!

I know your life might feel like the driest desert ever, with no possibility of hope. But through Isaiah, God asks whether His hand is too short to redeem, or whether He lacks the power to deliver, when by His rebuke He dries up the sea and turns rivers into desert (Isaiah 50:2). All the world could be against you, and He’d still keep His promise to you. His Word will not fail.

“God opened her eyes, and she saw a well.” That’s what we pray: that God would open eyes. First hearts to trust, then eyes to see His salvation. Our only part is reaching out to receive the water, in faith and humility.

Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that everyone who drinks ordinary water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water He gives will never thirst; it will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:13-14).

Who does He give it to? Whoever asks!

When you’re tired of freaking out, come to the Lord and be refreshed. If anyone thirsts, let him come to Jesus and drink (John 7:37).

Our hearts get so stressed, so worried, so sad, so depressed, so full of despair. And Jesus is waiting with the refreshing glory of the Holy Spirit to change everything: a real relationship with an invisible, infinitely satisfying and utterly dependable God. What a wonderful Savior!

Come and drink deeply of His Word and life. Jesus said that whoever hears His word and believes the One who sent Him has eternal life, will not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life (John 5:24).

Grace Takeaway

Most of our freaking out comes from forgetting what God has already said. Abraham surrendered what he loved and trusted God with it. Hagar wept beside a hidden well until God reminded her of His promise and opened her eyes. Find God’s promise for your desert, hold on to it, preach it to your soul, and share it with someone who’s falling apart. The well is closer than you think.

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Keep Calm and Remember the Promise