"Here I am. Send me!" These are the words that immediately came from Isaiah's lips when the Lord beckoned him (Isaiah 6:8). "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" was all God had to say to get Isaiah's attention. God was calling Isaiah to be a prophet among the Israelites, who had been disobeying the covenant for far too long. Enough was enough, and the Lord needed Isaiah to be His mouthpiece.
The really interesting thing about this passage is that unlike other Bible heroes such as Moses or Gideon, Isaiah was 100% ready and willing to be God's servant the second God asked. God didn't have to struggle with him. He didn't have to perform miracles or give Isaiah an aide. He simply appeared to Isaiah and asked the rhetorical question: "So who's gonna speak for me?"
How often do we as Christians try to dance around God's calling on our lives? How often do we pull a Moses and say, "Send someone else" or act like Gideon and make God prove himself to us? In the Old Testament, Christ-followers didn't have the Holy Spirit abiding within them yet, so if God wanted to use someone, he had to physically appear to them. But now, we have an Interceder, a slow and steady voice, dwelling inside of us to tell us what direction we should go. So if we can literally hear the voice of God within us, why do we still try to brush it away?
As a Christian, you'll know what the voice of God is when you hear him speak. It comes in those moments of silence when your mind is clear and you hear a voice as plain as day prompting you with words to speak or decisions to make. It's undeniable, though sometimes the things we hear are not things we necessarily want to do. For instance, in the case of Moses, he wanted someone else to save the Israelites because he was cowardly and weak - and lazy, too. He found his strength in himself, rather than in the Strength-Giver. Gideon also believed he was too weak to complete the task of redeeming the nation, and to stall, he tested God not once, but twice (!). Today, Christians make the same excuses: "I'm not strong enough. I'm not healthy enough. I'm not good enough. I'm not respected enough." Etc, etc. Excuses! My soccer coach used to have this saying: "Excuses are like butts - everyone has them, and they all stink."
So instead of falling into a pit of excuses, let's follow the example of Isaiah and answer the call of God immediately when he asks us. Life is too short to beat around the bush when it comes to God's will. When I die, I want to appear before God knowing I did everything in my power to follow Him. No more stalling, believers. No more excuses. The next time you feel the tug of the Holy Spirit on your heart, reply with, "Here I am, send me."
