Genesis 16. Hagar. “The angel of the Lord found her by a spring in the wilderness...’Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?’ She replied, ‘I’m running away...’”

God knew where she was yet He “found” her.
God knew why she’d run yet He asked her.

God engaged Hagar. He knew everything that had happened to her but He wanted her to tell it to Him in her own words. The psalmist pens God’s welcome this way: “Trust in Him...pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. (62) A pent-up heart knows no intimacy with God.

It is the poured-out heart that draws near to God. Maybe this is foreign to you. Maybe you don’t grasp how a God who already knows your story could still want to hear it from you. He wants a relationship with you & relationships aren’t 1-sided. Maybe you’re ashamed of your story.

I certainly was. And yet never once have I poured out my heart, even the most humiliating parts, & felt shamed by Him. And neither will you. If I’d been done wrong, I got to tell Him who it was & what they’d done. He already knew. But He wanted me to tell Him & know I was heard.

I can’t think of a set of questions more catalytic to starting a relationship with God or returning to relationship with God than these divine inquiries: Why are you running? Where have you been and where are you going? We’re all running from something. And most of the time,

we have little idea where we are going & paltry understanding about where we’ve been. I just want to say to you this morning that you are seen by the Lord. He knows. He’s there. He loves you so much & He’s sought you out. He cares where you’ve been and where you’re trying to go.

Tell it all to Him.