Isaiah 49: 1-5
1 Listen to me, all you in distant lands!
Pay attention, you who are far away!
The Lord called me before my birth;
from within the womb he called me by name.
2 He made my words of judgment as sharp as a sword.
He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand.
I am like a sharp arrow in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel,
and you will bring me glory.”
4 I replied, “But my work seems so useless!
I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose.
Yet I leave it all in the Lord’s hand;
I will trust God for my reward.”
5 And now the Lord speaks—
the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant,
who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him.
The Lord has honored me,
and my God has given me strength.
Chambers uses only the fifth verse for today’s reading, but I was so moved by the first five verses, I include them all here. Isaiah emphasizes twice in just these five verses that he was created for a purpose. That God formed him in the womb with intention, that before he was even born the Lord called him to servanthood and that his work was done through the strength of the Lord himself. These verses detail the commissioning of a servant of the Lord – God’s call to a man who feels as if his work is too small and too ineffective to be of value, but He trusts God to use it as He will.
As believers, these words apply to all of us. We are formed in our mother’s womb with intention. There is no accident of our birth. We are created to be a servant of Christ and regardless of our perceptions of our effectiveness for the kingdom, when we depend upon the Lord for our strength and our direction He can – and will – use us in ways we could never have imagined.
What a phenomenal realization!! We are created WITH purpose! God has a plan for us! We aren’t like the unplanned dinner guest that shows up at the last minute and the hostess has to adjust everything at the table to squeeze them in. No! We were planned on from the beginning. The table was set with us in mind all along. THAT is powerful indeed.
Okay, so I get that – but now what? Chambers opens today’s devotional by addressing that very question:
The first thing that happens after we have realized our election to God in Christ Jesus is the destruction of our prejudices and our parochial notions and our patriotisms; we are turned into servants of God’s own purpose…Sin has switched the human race on to another track, but it has not altered God’s purpose in the tiniest degree; and when we are born again we are brought into the realization of God’s great purpose for the human race, viz., I am created for God, He made me.
To continue with our dinner analogy: Suppose you’ve planned a dinner and your bustling in the kitchen preparing a fantastic chateaubriand, sliced fingerling potatoes and green beans almandine. You’ve set the table, selected the wine and as your guests begin to arrive, dinner is on schedule and is nearly ready to be set on the table. But suddenly, one of your guests bursts into the kitchen and pulls a chicken out of the refrigerator and begins preparing THAT. You protest: “I’ve contemplated the menu and planned for this meal! I’ve selected the wine with the dish I’ve prepared in mind. I’m the hostess for heaven’s sake! GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN!”
If this actually happened to any one of us, we would think the guest incredibly rude at the very least. It isn’t that there is anything wrong with chicken or that it isn’t tasty, but who amongst us would burst into a hostess’ kitchen and be so rude as to ignore the meal she has prepared and start cooking something entirely different? Yet how many of us do that exact thing to God on a regular basis – and with far greater issues at stake than just an evening meal.
We may have the best of intentions. We may think we know how best to proceed. But Chamber reminds us:
We have to maintain our soul open to the fact of God’s creative purpose, and not muddle it with our own intentions. If we do, God will have to crush our intentions on one side however much it may hurt. The purpose for which the missionary is created is that he may be God’s servant, one in whom God is glorified.
We need to keep our eyes upon the Lord and our hearts open to His purposes. We need to abandon our own agendas and allow God to place HIS agenda on our hearts. We need to accept the meal that he serves instead of wasting precious time preparing our own.
He formed us in our mother’s womb for one singular purpose: to be His servant. As Chambers says: Beware lest you forget God’s purpose for your life.
Excellent meditation! The kitchen/dinner analogy is good!
ReplyDeleteOne thing that surprises me in this Oz is that he says Jesus is RUTHLESS in His demands. Jesus? Ruthless? I had to read it twice to make sure I read what I thought I read!
But Jesus is indeed ruthless in His demands -- our souls are at stake! He has put into US the very nature of God, so He has every right to expect great things of us!