“Here am I. Send me!” Isaiah 6:8
There is a way God uses to pour grace into the hearts of people through which more are drawn to His goodness. It is that of the most nothing.
Consider Isaiah. Isaiah had a willing heart, but knew he was in need of being made right in God’s eyes before going out to serve. God equipped him by taking away his sin so he could be used to speak and deliver a message to people.
Look at Paul. He destroyed Christians, took their lives, and yet God turned Paul around so he could own a new heart that desired to share Christ’s love with the world rather than wreak havoc on the innocent. Paul spread Christianity abroad by going where God chose to send him. He even went to places and through circumstances including imprisonment that, at first, made no sense and seemed backward in what would result in sharing Christ with more people.
Joseph. He was ridiculed by his family for having a call by God on his life, and ended up in a dungeon, punished for things he did not do. He was tossed about, only to land in a place of shame, yet trusted the Lord for deliverance. His faith through the out-of-control was used mightily to save multitudes of people from starvation, a situation men originally intended against Joseph for evil.
And Esther. No one knew her and no one would have called her for something important. God did. He chose Esther to save the lives of His people. Esther had to leave home and believe God would protect her through uncertain circumstances that could turn deadly against her on a whim.
What do each of these examples in God’s Word have in common? Absolutely nothing: no thing as in not a single strategy each of these people could have engineered to manipulate their conditions.
Each had no control over what God was doing. God will use the most unlikely people to do what no one would ever call them to do because the fit appears unworkable, ill-equipped. But to God – He sees things just the opposite. And the good thing about that? It matters not one bit that people He calls appear to have nothing usable about them.
God knows how to prepare someone better than any school anyone in the world could devise, and does not always look for those who are already equipped with the most knowledge or ability. To strengthen our faith, He many times will choose the most nothing about someone, the very least likely to the rest of humanity, and call that person.
This is why we can take courage about what we hold quietly in our hearts in hope, but never dare consider He might actually do to answer. It is why when we persevere in prayer, we begin to look to the Lord not as much with our thoughts on the request, but toward saying, “Thank you, Lord, for how you want to answer this prayer.” Just words of thanksgiving come to mind because we have grown to a position of knowing God is going to do what we asked. We might not know how, but we know He is in control and will do something good.
Praying this way is not easy. We want human solutions sought through human perspectives. We also want to show our faith by acting, to do something to help make sense of the senseless and to look like we deserve a response because we are doing things. God understands and has compassion on that. He expects us to take steps of faith. He also expects us to seek Him to the point we understand when to wait and not feel pressured into acting at the wrong time. This requires we trust by asking far beyond our hopes – so much more than we know how to ask, or what steps of faith to take including to remain hands off until we are instructed to budge. Sometimes we are to be still. Other times we are to act. Both require trust and obedience.
Pray boldly that the answer goes way beyond the desire or need. This is growing faith. It is maturity that shows we are not shaken by the winds howling around us from doubts of other people or uncertain circumstances. It is faith that brings the most glory to God and helps us learn how much He loves us and wants the best for us. It shows we recognize the result provided will only be good, beyond the limits we put on the situation, and serve to draw others to the saving knowledge of Jesus in what He did for us on the cross.
Because of our Savior’s incredible ways of intervening, especially in the things that matter to us, there is everything good and right about being in a position of the most nothing. We must take the nothing in front of us to the Lord in prayer. He knows how to turn it into the something we are unable to yet see. Since He proves faithful over and over, as we learn to trust we can say, “Here am I. Send me!” no matter what God calls us to or whether it makes sense to us or others at first. Your most nothing, along with the solution to it, makes perfect sense to God who cares more about what happens than anyone. Isaiah, Paul, Joseph, Esther and others in the Bible were able to serve because God was able and willing to equip them for something greater than their own knowledge, experience, failures or abilities could ever do to stop them.
