Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

I'm Mike Whitmer, and today's devotional reading is entitled, God Calls Your Name.

Natalia went to a different nation with the promise of receiving an education.

But soon the father in her new home began physically and sexually abusing her.

He forced her to care for his home and children without pay.

He refused to let her go outside or use the phone.

She had become his slave.

Hagar was Abram and Sarah's Egyptian slave.

Neither one used her name.

They called her my slave or your slave.

They merely wanted to use her so they could have an heir.

How different is God?

The angel of the Lord makes his first appearance in Genesis 16, when he speaks to a pregnant Hagar in the desert. The angel is either

God's messenger or God himself. Hagar believes He is God, for she says, I have now seen the one

who sees me. If the angel is God, he could

possibly be the son, the one who reveals God to us, making an early, pre-incarnate appearance.

He says her name. Heagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?

God saw Natalia and brought caring people into her life who rescued her.

She's now studying to become a nurse.

God saw Hagar and called her by name. And God sees you. You may be overlooked or worse,

abused. Jesus calls you by name. Run to him. Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Genesis chapter 16, verses 1 through 9, and verse 16.

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar.

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