Many people believe that being a prophet of God was one of the most coveted jobs of all time. In reality, it was quite the opposite.
When God called Isaiah to prophesy to the people we love to dwell on the first part of his response in Isaiah 6:8. If you grew up in the church you probably have Isaiah 6:8 on a coffee mug somewhere. If you don't have it on a coffee mug I can almost guarantee that it's crossed your Facebook newsfeed on one of those cheesy "christian" pictures that may or may not accurately portray the truth of the Bible.
Isaiah's response: "Here I am! Send me!" is a wonderful response, but it's not his entire response. If you read on, God gave Isaiah further direction in Isaiah 6:9-10. Basically what God said was, "Good. Now that you've signed up let me tell you what's about to happen. You'll speak, but the people will never hear you. Nobody's even going to care that you're there Isaiah."
If I had heard the same message from God while I was in seminary I've got to admit it would have been hard to keep going!
The second half of Isaiah's response is found in Isaiah 6:11. He said, "How long, O Lord?" That didn't sound like the ministry he thought he was signing up for!
What about Jonah? God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and he ran the other way!
Jeremiah was in such deep despair that he said, "cursed be the day I was born!" He then went on to write Lamentation, which is basically a bunch of really sad poetry.
Regardless of the despair; regardless of the futility; regardless of the fear (except for Jonah needing a bad fishing experience to change his mind) - these men were faithful to serve God. It took faith and guts to answer the call.
Will you have the guts to serve God no matter what the perceived results? It's all guts, to the praise of His glory!
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