Supplemental Lesson 1
by
Steve Bryant
*Genesis 16, 18, 21:1-21*
After studying through Dale Lindsey Morgan’s excellent first lesson in the
2004-2005 Horizon’s Bible Study, “What She Said,” I found myself more
emotionally connected to both Sarah and Hagar. The connection is in the
profound human experience of yearning.
*Everyone is saying it: “There’s got to be something more.”*
*Sarah* In her barrenness, no doubt, Sarah had lifted up that very
prayer of yearning. God, there must be something more. Is this it for
me? To live a long life wanting so desperately to bring another life
into this world, wanting to feel alive, only to live in barrenness?” She
aches with a yearning for something more. And then one day, after many
years, the
yearning fades into a dull resignation. “I will die an old barren
woman.” What a sad and lonely place that must be, when yearning fades.
It is the place in life called hopelessness, as close to death as one
can possibly be.
*Hagar* Hagar yearned to be free. She yearned to be part of a family,
not on the fringes of one. She yearned to be truly loved by a man. And
yet, her existence was that of a slave. “God, there must be something
more. Is this what my life is going to be about?”
*We all know plenty of Sarahs and many Hagars. Consider these case studies:*
*The Yearning in Marriage She cries herself to sleep at night.* The
youngest child left today for his first year of college life. She’s left
in the house with a snoring husband, whom she wonders if she really
loves anymore, two cats, and a golden retriever. The marriage has been
dull at best for the past ten years. She prays, “God, is this it? Is
there more to life than this? Please, God, help me feel alive again.
Help me love again.”
*The Yearning After Achievement* She sits behind a large mahogany desk.
Chief Executive Officer. Her to-do list looks up at her. It says that
one of the managers has to be terminated this morning at 9:00. The rest
of the day will be spent meeting with analysts, attorneys, and
accountants. She’s sits there motionless, staring at the page long
enough for the coffee to go cold. She leans back and looks up at the
ceiling with a deep sigh. “God, I worked so hard to get here. Is this
it? What happened to the excitement of working my way up? There’s got to
be something more to life than this.”
*The Yearning for a Deeper Spirituality * She drives home from the Bible
Study, the second she has attended this week. It was good. The leader
did a nice job. But she had hoped, as she has hoped for every Bible
Study, that this one would capture her heart and fill her with a sense
of joy and renewal. But in all honesty, she still feels a kind of
emptiness and she wonders. “Why God, why do I feel so empty inside? I’ve
taught Sunday School for years, I’ve delivered Meals on Wheels, I’ve
been on every committee the church has ever known. I’ve read through the
Bible at least four times, but still I feel so empty. Isn’t there more
to life than this? Lord, I want more.”
*What does your prayer of yearning sound like?*
When you find yourself yearning for more, you have at least two options:
You can try to ignore the feeling. Bottle it up. Anesthetize it in some form
or fashion. But please don’t take this route, for it only leads to a darker
and deeper chasm of emptiness. It is no option at all.
Or, you can bring your yearning to the well spring of new life.
Think again of Hagar’s experience. She was cast out and despised, but “an
angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness.”
(Gen.16:7) Notice the movement. She takes a step toward the well spring, and
the Lord’s angel takes a step toward her. There he finds her. There he
announces God’s promise to satisfy her deepest yearning. “I will greatly
multiply your descendants so that they shall be too many to count…Behold
you are with child….The Lord has given heed to your affliction…” (Gen.
16:10-11)
Then again, driven away and left helpless with her young son, Ishmael, she
squeezes the last drop of water into her son’s parched mouth. Sitting him
down under the shade of a desert bush, she walks away, drops to her knees
and prays, “Lord, please don’t let me see him die.” God hears her cry and
gives answer through the angel’s voice from heaven:
“What is the matter with you Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice
of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand,
for I will make a great nation of him. Then God opened her eyes and she saw
a well spring of water.” (Gen. 21:17-19)
Notice again the movement. She merely closes her eyes to pray, and when she
does, God responds. He opens her eyes and gives her a well spring from which
to drink.
*What should we do with our deepest yearnings? *
Hagar has the answer for us. Take them to God and He will lead us to the
well spring of new life. Each character in the above case studies does the
right thing. They begin by
taking their yearning to God in prayer.
Do you want more out of your marriage? Take that yearning to God and He’ll
lead you to the well. Do you want more out of your career? Take it to God
and He’ll fill you from His well spring. Do you want a deeper more intimate
relationship with God? Tell Him so, and He will lead you to the well of
Living Water. Take your yearnings to God and you will discover what David
knew:
“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want….He leads me beside quiet
waters, He restores my soul…My cup overflows!” (Psalm 23:1,2,5)
*Turn again to your Horizon’s Bible Study. Read question 3 on page 10. What
*
*are some steps you could take to get closer to the well?*
Over the years, hundreds of people have asked me to recommend good
devotional
material. Often, I sense that what people are really looking for is a method
or a technique for achieving a deeper spirituality. However, no spiritual
writer can do it for you. There are no methods or techniques that will
satisfy your thirst. Your deepest yearning can only be satisfied by Jesus,
and through a growing and intimate relationship with Him. You play a very
small part in the development of that relationship.
What I’m about to suggest to you is not a method or a technique, but simply
small steps you can take toward the well. If you will simply take these
steps, God will do His part.
*You can do these things:*
1. Commit some of your time. (Or better yet, give back some of His
time!)
2. You can create for yourself an environment free from distractions.
Turn off the T.V. and the cellphone.
3. You can place before you a notepad and a Bible.
4. You can begin your prayer each day with the recognition of your deep
desire to be in His presence.
5. You can prayerfully repent of thoughts that say, “You don’t have time
for
this.”
6. You can choose to read the account of one of the great Biblical
characters like Sarah or Hagar, or read one of the Psalms of David, or a
portion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, etc.
7. You can reflect upon your reading of the Bible through writing a
prayer. You will be surprised by the insight God gives to you, and how
renewed and
refreshed you will feel by writing your prayers, and looking back over
them
each week.
8. You can be quiet for a few minutes before resuming the duties of the
day.
*Again, this is no method or technique, but simply small steps toward the
well spring of new life. Jesus is the only one who can satisfy your deepest
yearning. Bring your yearning to the well and He will fill you up.*
Jesus said, “Whoever drinks of the water that I give, shall never thirst;
but the water that I shall give shall become a well of water springing up to
eternal life. (John 4:14)
For use as a closing prayer: (Psalm 42)