Thought for the Week - 1st November

Revelation 3: 20

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”

We hear the words “here I am” in the Bible a number of times. Moses at the start of his ministry, was out tending his father-in-law’s flock which was an ordinary everyday task, when God spoke to him from the Burning Bush. God called his name and Moses responded “here I am”.

There was no doubting in his response. He did not ask who is this, or question his experience, he simply said, “here I am”. When we say “here I am” to God there is an honesty in it. It is presenting ourselves exactly as we are rather than putting a front on or hiding. We can often feel we have to pretend everything is ok and put a front on when we speak to Him or we hear Him tugging on our heart. We can think that we need to make things right in our head and heart before we come to Him, yet we read that Moses who had many issues said “here I am”.

When we come to God we don’t have to pretend everything is ok or that we are something that we are not. It is important that we come to Him honestly and with the true condition of our heart. God wants us to come to Him in this way and ask Him to do in us what is His will.

The opposite of coming to God saying “here I am” is hiding. Adam hid from when he sinned, likewise when we hear God calling us, we too can hide and feel that pulling away, especially when we know we’re not in a right place. We may be feeling that He will be harsh with us, or that we are not good enough and need to sort the various things within us out before we can come to Him. We don’t need to hide from God, He wants us to come even though we’ve made a mess of things, even though we may not want to spend time with Him, He wants us to come exactly as we are and to do so willingly.

When God asked Abraham what was perhaps the most difficult and challenging thing that could have been asked of him, Abraham’s response was “here I am”, he didn’t question or hide, but in what would have been extremely difficult circumstances, he simply presented himself and did what was asked.

When God asks something of us, or wants us to do something, so often our reactions fail as our nature rises up. Rather than hide in these feelings, God wants us to come to Him willingly. It may be we don’t have the right reaction, it may be that we feel like we are pulling back, but we say “here I am Lord” this is how I’m feeling, I give it to You and I’m here for You to do with me what You want, I am here Lord for You to use.

We forget God actually wants to spend time with us and this doesn’t need to be hours and hours of quiet time, we can say “here I am Lord” during our day-to-day life. We can turn our hearts towards Christ and open up to him throughout our day and be in communion with him. As things rise up in us, and thoughts come that aren’t of Him, we shouldn’t scold ourselves and create distance and pull away, but bring them to Him, draw closer, and ask him to change us.

When we say “here I am Lord”, Jesus is there already waiting to spend time with us, to take our pains and struggles, and hear about our day. When we open up to Him in our vulnerability we can praise Him more, worship Him more and thank him more.

Amen.

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