To Serve

Isaiah 6:8 “Then I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, ‘Whom can I send? Who will go for us?’ So I said, ‘Here I am. Send me!’” (NCV, emphasis added).

When people hear God say, “Who shall we send? Who will go for us?” They enter into different modes. We looked at the evaluation mode and the study mode yesterday. 

Another mode that people get into is the consultant mode. They say, “Lord, let us do a decision matrix and a cost-benefit analysis. If You send the lower-ranking angels, the cost to You would be XYZ. If you send the higher-ranking angels, the cost to You would be ABC.” But they never see themselves as being sent. Guess what? It is you God is talking to!

Sometimes, when people respond to the call, they want to dictate to God where He should send them. Lord, send me to Afghanistan, Tokyo, Uzbekistan, the United Kingdom, or America. But most times, like in the case of Isaiah, God started by sending Isaiah to Israel. God said to him, “Go to the King of Syria. Go to the King of Israel.” Interestingly, we are saying, “God, Here I am. I am available. Send me to the nations but Lord, I want to go to Costa Rica, Dallas, or America.” God is saying, “What about that your next-door neighbour? I am sending you to them. Reach out to them and invite them to church. Tell them about Jesus Christ.” 

The seventh thing that happens when you stand and say, “God, Here I am. I am available” is You Serve the Person You Never Thought You Could Serve. And that was the story of Ananias in Acts 9. Paul had been causing trouble for Christians, and God had knocked him down. Acts 9:10-11 “There was a follower of Jesus in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to Ananias in a vision, ‘Ananias!’  Ananias answered, ‘Here I am, Lord.’  The Lord said to him, ‘Get up and go to Straight Street. Find the house of Judas and ask for a man named Saul from the city of Tarsus.’” (NCV, emphasis added). 

Ananias said, “Lord, here I am, but I am afraid. This Saul can kill me, in fact, he has permission to kill Christians. I would rather not have anything to do with him.” Yet sometimes when we say, “Here I am”, God sends us to serve the people we never thought we could serve. Are there people you need to serve with forgiveness? People that you would rather not forgive, or have anything to do with? God is saying to you serve them with forgiveness. There are some people that you would rather not pray for or love. God says, serve them and love them.

Prayer: Father, here I am, not my will but Yours be done in my life and through my life, in Jesus Name. Amen!