Volume 37: El Roi: The God Who Sees Me

Day 141 Devotional

EL ROI: THE GOD WHO SEES ME

My family has a nickname for me that most people do not know.

Growing up, many of my relatives pronounced my middle name, KaDarrell, with a Mississippi southern dialect that removed the prefix and softened the “r” sound. Over time, KaDarrell became “Dale.” Even now, there are family members who still call me by that name.

Others know me as Anthony. Some know me by my full name. Very few know me as Dale.

That name carries meaning because it comes from people who knew me before ministry, before books, before speaking engagements, and before many of life’s accomplishments and disappointments. It reminds me of family, history, and relationship. It reminds me that some names are only understood by those who know your story.

The same is true with God. Many people know Him simply as God. Others know Him as Lord. Yet throughout Scripture, God reveals Himself through names that uncover specific aspects of His character. These names were never intended to be theological trivia. They were invitations into relationship.

One of the most beautiful and often overlooked names of God is El Roi.

El Roi means, “The God Who Sees Me.” The name first appears in Genesis 16 during one of the most heartbreaking moments in Scripture.

Hagar was a servant caught in a situation she did not create. Used to produce a child for someone else’s promise, she became the target of resentment when that promise began to unfold. The very people who had involved her in the situation turned against her. Pregnant, wounded, humiliated, and desperate to escape the pain, she fled into the wilderness alone.

Pause for a moment and consider that. Hagar was not simply traveling through the desert. She was running from rejection. She carried the crushing realization that she was unwanted, unheard, and seemingly disposable. No family. No protection. No provision. No clear future. Just a pregnant woman sitting in the wilderness wondering if anyone cared what happened to her.

HAGAR FELT INVISIBLE

Many people know exactly what that feels like. Perhaps you have never sat alone in a desert, but you have sat alone in disappointment.

You have carried wounds nobody noticed, shed tears nobody saw, and fought battles nobody understood. You have felt overlooked, forgotten, dismissed, or abandoned by the very people who should have cared the most.

That was Hagar’s reality. Yet what makes this story so powerful is that before Hagar found God, God found Hagar. In the middle of her wilderness, in the middle of her pain, in the middle of her questions, the Lord came looking for the woman everyone else had overlooked.

The most powerful part of her story is that Hagar was not searching for God. God was searching for Hagar.

The Angel of the Lord appeared to her and spoke directly to her pain, her circumstances, and her future. Following that encounter, Hagar responded with these words:

“And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me…” (Genesis 16:13)

A rejected servant woman is the first recorded instance in Scripture of someone giving God a name based upon a personal encounter.

Why would God reveal such a powerful name to someone the world would have considered insignificant?

Because God often introduces Himself according to our deepest need.

Before Hagar needed provision, she needed assurance. Before she needed direction, she needed comfort. Before she needed answers, she needed to know she had not been abandoned.

God revealed Himself as El Roi because Hagar needed to know that Heaven had not lost sight of her.

UNDERSTANDING EL ROI CHANGES THE WAY WE PRAY

Many of us approach prayer as though we must convince God to notice us. We repeatedly explain our fears, disappointments, struggles, and needs as though He is unaware of what we are carrying.

El Roi reminds us that before we ever pray, God already sees. He sees the burden before we describe it. He sees the wound before we expose it. He sees the need before we mention it. He sees the tears before they fall.

God even sees the prayers we have not yet found the words to pray. Prayer is not informing God about something He missed. Prayer is responding to the God who has already seen us.

That realization changes everything. When we pray to El Roi, we are not speaking to a distant God who must be persuaded to care. We are speaking to a Father who searched us out and saw us before we called, loved us before we understood Him, and moved toward us before we ever thought to move toward Him.

Before Hagar’s circumstances changed, she discovered God’s character.

Sometimes the greatest answer to prayer is not immediately receiving what we want. Sometimes it is discovering who God is while we wait.

Today, if you feel overlooked, forgotten, exhausted, or alone, remember the name Hagar gave to God in the wilderness.

He is El Roi. The God who sees. The God who notices. The God who has not forgotten you.