Here I am

God called to him . . . . And he said, ’Here I am’ —Exodus 3:4

When God called to Moses from the burning bush, Moses was ready, “Here I am.”  Am I ready.? Moses was ready because God had put him through some preparation. He had moved Him from wearing fancy clothes in the house of Pharaoh to the simple fashion of the wilderness, a leader of Egypt to a tender of sheep. He had moved him for thinking he was a child of Egypt to the knowledge that he was a slave, a child of the people of God. He had moved him from thinking he could do something about the suffering of his people on his own, to knowing that alone he could do nothing.

Am I ready? Do I know who I am? A Child of God. Do I know I can do nothing on my own? Can I recognize His voice coming from the bush, because I’ve heard it and responded to it before. Is my time in the wilderness at an end and is it time to go into Egypt and bring the redemptive word of God?

“When God speaks, many of us are like people in a fog, and we give no answer. Moses’ reply to God revealed that he knew where he was and that he was ready. Readiness means having a right relationship to God and having the knowledge of where we are. We are so busy telling God where we would like to go. Yet the man or woman who is ready for God and His work is the one who receives the prize when the summons comes. We wait with the idea that some great opportunity or something sensational will be coming our way, and when it does come we are quick to cry out, “Here I am.” Whenever we sense that Jesus Christ is rising up to take authority over some great task, we are there, but we are not ready for some obscure duty.

Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest thing or the largest thing— it makes no difference. It means we have no choice in what we want to do, but that whatever God’s plans may be, we are there and ready. Whenever any duty presents itself, we hear God’s voice as our Lord heard His Father’s voice, and we are ready for it with the total readiness of our love for Him. Jesus Christ expects to do with us just as His Father did with Him. He can put us wherever He wants, in pleasant duties or in menial ones, because our union with Him is the same as His union with the Father. “. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . .” ( John 17:22 ).”

Maybe He’s not calling me to save a nation. Maybe the task is not so great. Maybe I’m to hold a grandchild or cry with a brother or spend a weekend in lock up. Doing anything for the living God is never a small thing. It is a great privilege. Our calculation of its significance is insignificant. It’s what He thinks that counts. It’s what He calls us to that matters.