Dear Friends,
Have you ever been in trouble? I don’t mean have you ever been faced with a problem. I mean have you ever face something so serious it seemed to you at that time to be a matter of life and death. Where can one go in such a case? Today’s devotional answers that question. God bless you.

Because of Calvary,
John Janney

• Genesis 21:17 (ESV)

  17 And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

God heard the voice of the lad… It is not said that the boy uttered an articulate prayer for help. It is rather implied that the only voice which God heard was that of Ishmael’s dying sobs and groans. As He once heard the mother’s affliction, so He now hears the son’s anguish…. Hagar’s son was not called Ishmael “God hears” in vain…. Above the songs of angels and the music of the spheres, God hears a child’s cry…. The most beautiful saying to be found in the Talmud is, “When the gates of prayer are shut in heaven, those of tears are open.” [James Strahan, Hebrew Ideals in Genesis: Study of Old Testament Faith and Life, (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1902-1905), p. 149-150]