Author: Betty-Anne Van Rees

El Roi: “The God Who Sees” Changes Everything That Matters

El Roi: “The God Who Sees” Changes Everything That Matters

Posted by | Feb 5, 2025 | |

When life is hard, a deep sense of aloneness can add to the weight of the suffering we already bear. The relational nature of God’s design for humans, as communicated in Jesus’ summary of the commandments (Matt. 22:38-40), means that it’s hardwired into us that we would long for the kind of relationships in which we are known—seen. We were created for relationship. This is one of the ways we image our Creator. He exists in relationship within the Trinity and created man and woman to be relational beings as the pinnacle of His creative work.

Over and over again, in the grand narrative of the Bible, God reveals Himself as the God who sees us personally and intimately, but the first time He reassures a struggler with this truth, she uses a new name for Him that seals this attribute as an unchangeable part of our understanding of God: El Roi. Through Hagar’s story of pain and desperation, found in Genesis 16, God reveals Himself to be One who knows us intimately, seeing our sorrows and struggles and caring about the specific details of our lives in ways that move Him. Continue Reading →

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Created to Long

Created to Long

Posted by | Dec 2, 2024 | |

Longing is part of our hard wiring. Even before the Fall, there was room for longing. If this wasn’t true, Adam and Eve would not have been drawn away from God by the desire to be like Him or taste what was forbidden. So, we can assume that longing is not inherently sinful. It was a part of “us” when God looked over His creation and saw that it was very good (Gen. 1:31). Our difficulties arise when, like Adam and Eve, our hearts turn to small, impotent life-snuffing longings rather than to our one, sure, all-satisfying Hope. Continue Reading →

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BOD Megaphone: Grace and Truth Blog

BOD Megaphone: Grace and Truth Blog

Posted by | Aug 23, 2024 | |

Words, words, and more words–never in human history have people had the kind of access we have today to almost infinite information and ideas. Gone are the days of waiting until you can make a trip to the library or dragging out a volume of the encyclopedia. We have the potential to have answers to any question we could ever ask with the click of a button. The difficulties we face today are discerning what information we need (do I actually need to know where Azores is at midnight?) and where we can get reputable answers to the questions that do need answering. Continue Reading →

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Afraid of the Wrong Thing

Afraid of the Wrong Thing

Posted by | Jun 24, 2024 | |

One mystifying aspect of the spiritual battles we face as followers of Jesus is the almost universal tendency to be afraid of the things that are helpful for us and unafraid of those that are harmful. We feel safer at home, so we watch church online. We fear conflict, so we fake peace rather than join God in growing true peace. We fear failing, so we resist extending ourselves to new areas of ministry. We are terrified of people’s judgment, so we hide pornography addictions. Perhaps all of these are the practical outworking of the fear of being known. So we hide—behind a false image, or a false peace, or in the safety of our own homes. We lock ourselves up in solo-sized fortresses. Like the marooned island dweller, we tell ourselves that God will rescue us, not recognizing the ship that is offering rescue is His means to do so. Continue Reading →

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