Monday, December 12

THE SENDING OF A MESSENGER

Isaiah 6

Today as I write this devotional for us to read in Advent, the leaves are turning colors, and there are signs of autumn all around. It is that time of year when we rake the leaves that have fallen and trim back the plants. Soon the trees and plants will be bare, and everything will look as though it were dead. We know, of course, that they are not dead, because experience tells us that in the spring, new leaves and buds will emerge and life will come forth. This is a very important process for the trees and plants, and can all take place because the roots are firmly planted in the ground.

In our text today, basically the same thing is going on with Isaiah. In Chapters 1-5, you can see that Isaiah has been a man of God and a preacher of righteousness, a tree firmly planted in the ground. Now, in Chapter 6, God has shown Isaiah how unclean he is before a Holy God. Isaiah could defend himself and say that he has already been serving God with all his heart, but Isaiah is a man who trusts God and humbles himself to the live coal, which cleanses him all the more. Isaiah knows that he has his roots firmly planted in God, and he is willing to give up everything he knows for a deeper walk with the Lord. Matthew 16:24-26 says, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"

God is calling for each one of us to follow these same steps as we walk through this life. If our roots are firmly planted in the Lord Jesus Christ, let him come and cleanse our hearts with His live coal from the altar. Matthew 3:10 says that, "even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees." Like the plants that I was trimming, God wants to come and put His Holy Spirit ax to our root and thoroughly cleanse us. When we come humbly and submit to that cleansing, giving up everything we know to the Lord, He will come and fill us with His new Spirit-filled life. Like the plants whose roots are firmly planted in the soil, our roots have to be firmly planted in the Lord. Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches, He who abides in Me and I in Him, bears much fruit for without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5 When we have that Holy Spirit Life growing in us, we will be able to answer that call as Isaiah did in vs. 8—"Here am I, send me."

~ Debbie Frantz