‘Here Am I. Send Me!’

‘I said, “Here am I. Send me!”’ Isaiah 6:8 NIV

Isaiah writes, ‘Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go…!”’ (Isaiah 6:8–9 NIV) In the preceding Scriptures Isaiah was making all sorts of excuses and telling God why he wasn’t qualified to do the job. But in God’s Kingdom, your calling trumps your credentials every time! And the litmus test isn’t experience or expertise, it’s availability and teachability. If you are willing to go when God gives you the green light, He will take you to inaccessible places and do impossible things. Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Esther, Moses, Samuel, David, and Isaiah all have one thing in common. They all said, ‘Here am I.’

Isn’t it ironic that we spend so much time and energy trying to figure out how to get to where God wants us to go, when all we have to do is simply say, ‘Here am I’? It’s God’s job to get us to where He wants us to go; our job is to make ourselves available. Like a doctor on call or a police officer on duty or a firefighter on shift, it’s our readiness to respond that God is looking for. Sometimes it’s a simple prompting to go out of our way and love our next-door neighbour. Sometimes it’s a calling to move halfway around the world. But it always starts with the little three-word prayer of availability: ‘Here am I.’ That’s what Moses said at the burning bush. That’s what Caleb said when he finally set foot in the Promised Land. And that’s what God wants you to say today.

我在这里，请差遣我！

我说：“我在这里，请差遣我！” (以赛亚书 6:8 和合本)

以赛亚先知写到：我又听见主的声音说：“我可以差遣谁呢？谁肯为我们去呢？”我说：“我在这里，请差遣我！”他说：“你去……” (以赛亚书 6:8-9 和合本) 在此前面的经文中，以赛亚先知作了各种各样的辩解，告诉上帝他不能承担神的工作。但在上帝的国度里，神对你的呼召要胜过你自身的能力！神看重的并不是你的经验或专业知识，而是你的愿意和受教的心。只要你愿意，上帝就会给你开绿灯，带你到你认为不可能去的地方，做一些你认为不可能完成的事情。亚伯拉罕，雅各，约瑟，以斯帖，摩西，撒母耳，大卫，以赛亚都有一个共通点，他们都愿意说：‘我在这里。’

很讽刺的是，我们常常花了很多的时间和精力，想方设法找到神要我们去的地方，而我们神要做的只是简单地说，‘我在这里’。神的工作就是带我们到祂希望我们去的地方，而我们的工作就是随时准备去。就像值班的医生、警察或消防员一样，我们随时准备回应上帝的呼召。有时候，这可能只是一个简单的提示，比如让我们离开家，去爱我们的隔壁邻居，但也有时候，我们可能需要跨越整个地球。但它总是以三个字的“愿意祈祷”开始的：“我在这。” 这就是摩西在燃烧的荆棘丛中所说的话，也是迦勒最后踏上应许之地时所说的话。同样，这也是上帝今天要你说的。

（翻译：段麦克 @ 2018-04-04）