Here am I: Send Me!
Ponder: My personal responsibility
Scripture: “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8, NKJV)
Have you heard about the four church members, Sam Somebody, Evan Everybody, Andy Anybody, and Norbert Nobody? Whenever a job needed done at church, Everybody figured Anybody could do that. But Anybody thought Somebody would surely do it. However, Somebody figured it was Everybody’s job. Of course Nobody ended up doing it. Poor Nobody was worked to death, so Nobody went to Heaven. As for Anybody, Everybody, and Somebody, you can finish the story.
Where are those who, like Isaiah, will say, “Here am I: Send me!” (Isaiah 6:9). Do we mean those words when we sing them? When Isaiah understood who God was (6:1-4) and what He had done for him, he was ready to go to work! Do you realize who God is and what He has done for you?
Moses wasn’t so willing – at least not at first. “Why me? I don’t know what to say? They won’t listen to me. I can’t speak well” (see Exodus 4:1-10). Unlike Isaiah, Moses wanted the Lord to “send someone else”! Indeed, God sent someone else (Aaron), but He sent him *along with* Moses, not in place of him. Moses finally accepted his assignment and fulfilled it magnificently. Lesson: you don’t have to do everything by yourself. It’s ok for others to help. But you must do your part!
Jesus rebuked the church at Sardis because they failed to finish what they had begun. “I have not found your works perfect [complete] before God” (Revelation 3:2). Despite their reputation for being a lively congregation, the Great Physician pronounced them dead (3:1).
May each of us zealously answer the call of God: “Here am I: Send me!” And may we persevere with determination so that God’s will may be done, His name may be glorified, and we may enter Heaven by His grace.
Song: “Here am I; Send Me!”
Prayer: Father in Heaven, forgive our laziness! Help us to appreciate Who You are and the wonderful grace you have shown us through Christ. And help us, we pray, to shift our focus away from what we think others ought to be doing, and to look instead at our own responsibility. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Joe Slater (Justin, TX