Isaiah 6

Chapter 6 records Isaiah's vision of God in His temple. Seraphs surrounded Him, and they called, "'Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.' At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke" (Is. 6:3-4).

Isaiah, knowing that he was not worthy to see God Almighty, said that he was "ruined" because he was "a man of unclean lips [and lived] among a people of unclean lips" (Is. 6:5). At this, one of the seraphs flew to him (they had 6 wings--2 covering their eyes, 2 covering their feet, and 2 for flying) and touched a piece of coal from the altar to Isaiah's lips, saying that he was then free from guilt and his sin had been atoned for (Is. 6:6-7).

Here is the part that intrigues me. Then God asks, "'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?'" (Is. 6:8a). God needs a messenger to send to His people. And Isaiah immediately replies, "'Here am I. Send me!'" (Is. 6:8b). Once Isaiah knows that he has been cleansed from his sin, he is ready to go. Are we so ready to carry God's message? Not usually. For some, it's an issue of not feeling good enough. We've accepted Jesus as our Savior, but we still feel like we're not worthy to speak on God's behalf. We will never be worthy enough on our own. But Jesus has given us His righteousness, and that makes us "good enough." For others, I don't think we fully understand the significance of our beliefs. Anyone who is not cleansed from his sin will eventually go to hell. If we lived with more of an awareness of this, I think we would be much more likely to take God's message of love to His people.

May God provide you with a heightened awareness of His "big picture" today.