By Pastor Don Schatz

Here am I

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I….The Lord will guide you always; ….”
Isaiah 58:9, 11a New International Version

‘Help Wanted’ signs are pretty much everywhere today.  As we hopefully leave the pandemic behind and try to regain some sense of normal, jobs are plentiful.  Today is not a ‘Help Wanted’ day.  It’s a ‘Help Needed’ day.  Maybe not literally for you, but that is the devotional focus.  Even if we don’t need to put a ‘Help Needed’ sign around our neck today, we likely will someday.

Ancient Israel needed help rather frequently.  Usually, it was their own fault.  Not always, but quite often.  Regardless, God promised if they called, he would answer their cry for help.  “The Lord will answer”, Isaiah said.

And Isaiah says one thing more.  Isaiah records his Call to ministry in chapter 6.  There, God asks, “Who will go for us?”  Isaiah answers, “Here am I, send me!”  In Isaiah 58:9, the people cry for help.  And Isaiah says that whenever we call to him for help, God will say, “Here am I!”  Isaiah raised his hand when God called.  God raises his hand to us when we call in prayer and pleading for his help.  “Here am I,” he says.

Like a non-self-propelled barge on the Columbia River, which needs a tug for power and for guidance, we need the power of Christ’s Gospel (‘the power of God for salvation…’ Romans 1:16).  Gospel grace empowers our living and enables us to look to God for help.  The Scriptures of our God provide ample guidance for living life as a child of God.  The Holy Spirit is the promised Guide who directs our reading of Scripture and works in us the will and ability to see and to do what God wants for us in daily life.

So today, if you need to, or tomorrow if not today, call on the Lord.  Listen!  He is already saying, “Here am I.”  For you.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado