The Lodestar

Hagar’s experience is a commentary on Christian songwriter Annie Flint's famous lines: “When we have exhausted our store of endurance When our strength has failed ere the day is half done, When we reach the end of our hoarded resources. Our Father’s full giving is only begun.”

Hagar was a helpless castaway. Her master, also the father of her son, Ishmael, sent her away into the desert with some bread and a jar of water. We do not know how much bread and water she had, but we are told that her water supply ran out. In the sweltering heat of the Mediterranean sun, no creature could survive without water. So, she put her son under one of the bushes, moved to a place where she could not hear the cry of the dying child, and wept. There are no options left.

The story states that God heard the child crying for water, and an angel declared that God’s plan for Ishmael was not to die in the desert heat, but to become a great nation (Gen 21:18). Thus, Ishmael became the ancestor of the vast Ishmaelite race. God had already provided water for Hagar and Ishmael to drink. There was a well of water, which Hagar probably had not noticed, from which she could fill her water jar. The story has a happy ending—the boy became an expert in archery, married and established a great race.

Thus, the castaway became a matriarch of nations, the abandoned child a champion, and the empty shrivelled water jar full.

We can count on God because he opens his supplies when our stock (emotional, physical, relational, or spiritual) runs out.

To repeat Ms Flint’s lines: “When our strength has failed ere the day is half done, when we reach the end of our hoarded resources, Our Father’s full giving is only begun.”

Are you standing where Hagar once stood — at the end of your strength, with no options left? Remember, when your store runs dry, God’s supply is just beginning. Take a moment today to turn to Him in your emptiness. Open your eyes to the provision already placed within reach. And if this message spoke to your heart, share it with someone who may be waiting for hope in their desert place.

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