Here I Am

A Series on God’s Call to Ministry

Isaiah 6:1-13

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%206&version=NIV;NLT

[Preface: How do you know what your calling in life is? Will you know from a big bang experience? Or will it come quietly, almost imperceptible? Will you be inspired by the stories of a visiting missionary; or a book that opens your eyes to the needs of a specific people group; or from your own life experience? This series is about God’s call to ministry for your life; what it means or doesn’t mean.]

I learned to ride a bicycle by using training wheels. Probably most kids do. But for me, it wasn’t so much a matter of learning to ride, as it was not wanting to take a risk… at anything. I wasn’t a risk taker then, and I’m still not today.

My daughter seems to have inherited this same trait. As a little girl, when her Mother tried to teach her how to ride a bike, she resisted to the point of being forced to learn. She screamed and cried, “I don’t want to do this. Don’t make me do this. I can’t do this”, as she rode her bike up and down the sidewalk… without training wheels.

However, there are some people who are risk takers; Isaiah for instance. His vision of the LORD sitting in his throne in the Temple included six winged angels flying around calling out in a voice so loud that it “shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke”.

That doesn’t sound like a vision to me; it sounds more like a nightmare. Isaiah was so afraid of the Holy LORD Almighty that he called out his own condemnation.

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”                 NIV

Once his guilt had been removed and his sins forgiven, here’s what happened next.

⁸ Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”

I said, “Here I am. Send me.”        NLT

Isaiah got off his training wheels and took a risk. He volunteered to be the LORD’s messenger to a rebellious people; “a people of unclean lips”. It was then that he learned what an unpopular message he would bring.

⁹ And the Lord said, “Yes, go, and say to this people,

‘Listen carefully, but do not understand.
    Watch closely, but learn nothing.’       NLT

Not everyone is going to take as big a risk as Isaiah did. But, like Isaiah, we need to be ready to take a risk and say to the LORD, “Here I am. Send me”.