Reflection on Isaiah 6:8

I remember being young and in church, and hearing a sermon on this verse. I was probably 10 or 11 years old, and this verse evoked in me a feeling of inspiration new to my little brain. Being someone who consistently liked staying in the background, finding myself there anyway due to my quiet nature, I found it hopeful and appealing that God would send someone like me to spread His message to His people- to the world. 

As I’ve gotten older, I still find this verse beautiful. The simplicity of a simple question with a humble, simple response, and that being the calling of God on someone’s life- it makes all of the complicated aspects of life, all the decisions and opinions of others, fade into the background. Isaiah simply said “Here I am! Send me.” This is what life is. It’s being willing to serve as the Lord’s vessel in this world that so desperately needs His light; His light that shines to expose sin, and His light that shines to bring hope to a world deceived by its own pleasures, left empty. 

But in order to be used by God, we first have to be wholly devoted to Him. We can’t say “Here I am Lord, send me,” and spend our days gossiping and complaining about people and circumstances in our lives, and doing things that please and glorify ourselves, not God. We have to make choices that will bring us closer to God, and ask for His strength to make those decisions, because everything in our flesh will resist. 

In my own life, I’m far from perfect in this. I need the Lord’s strength for discipline to get in His word every day, and pick up my Bible before I check my phone. I need His strength to shut down gossip instead of participating in it. I need His strength to see what I have to be thankful for instead of complaining about what I can’t change. So believe me, I’m not saying these words out of self-righteousness; I’m saying them because I need to hear them, every single day. 

In order to be a vessel of the Lord, we must be living under His design, and must be fully devoted to Him in every aspect of our lives. Granted, we will never be perfect; I could tell you an instance yesterday when I chose to complain and gossip, sinning against God and the person being talked about. And here I am today, writing about how to follow Jesus more closely. It’s not hypocrisy; it’s the mercy and grace of God that I can repent and stand forgiven and redeemed, and still serve Him, despite my sinful nature. 

I spent the first semester of my senior year of high school living a double life- looking like a good student and “good” Christian (if there were such a thing) on the outside, but my life that was not seen by adults and authorities was spent thinking, saying, and doing things of the opposite. A few weeks ago, I was reading my journal entries from around this time, and as a high school senior, I was praying to God that I would glorify Him, but my daily choices reflected the opposite.  

This is what I am getting at- you can want to serve God, but until you make choices to get on a path that glorifies Him, you’ll only be serving yourself. As I kept reading this journal, I got to the second semester of senior year- I had continued praying the same prayer, only now, I was admitting to God my temptation to indulge in sin and the pleasure from it, and asking for His strength to resist the temptations. I was pleading for my heart to be changed; to want what He wanted. Slowly, without me noticing it, God transformed my heart, and one day, my freshman year of college, I found myself saying no to alcohol and no to hanging out with the wrong people, not because I had to, but because I wanted to, and I found myself no longer drawn to those things. 

This is not a story of me patting myself on the back. In fact, I hope it is the opposite- you can see that in my own strength, I was never able to live a life that glorified God. It was only when I found myself broken to the point that I felt I’d never recover, when I felt that I had nothing left, that I turned to God and begged Him to do what I was clearly unable to do for myself. It was when I admitted to Him my sin and my desire to pursue the flesh and not Him that He was finally able to cleanse me, renew me, strengthen me, and equip me to live a life for Him. It’s not about me- it’s about God’s transformation power, how He saw my desire to live for Him, and how He strengthened me when my flesh resisted. But our flesh cannot forever resist the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

It’s beautiful- when we admit to the Father that we see our sinful tendencies, He does not crush us in our vulnerability- He loves us with His perfect love and helps us where we fall ever so short. He can and will do it for anyone. He’s waiting with open arms to receive whoever wants to come back to Him, and live a life that is submitted to Him and willing to be sent for His purpose, for His glory. This was His original design; we are most fulfilled when we live in it. 

We are most fulfilled when we give up all else, and simply say to the Lord,  “Here I am, send me.”

By Hannah Gromis