Devotionals by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Then I heard the LORD asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.”(Isaiah 6:8)

Isaiah says, “I saw the Lord!” His earthly situation turned his eyes upward. That’s what happened to me back in the late 1950s. My disappointment, my loneliness and confusion, rather than hardening the soil of my soul, plowed deeply. Those things cut away at me, made me sensitive to my Lord . . . in a way I would otherwise never have been.

For you it may be a lingering illness or an unexpected move to a new location, a job change, or perhaps a sudden loss of employment entirely. I know an individual who claims that it took a divorce to bring him to his knees and (for the first time in his life) to become aware of God’s presence.

A couple my wife had known for 15 years lost their 18-month-old baby girl. Their grief could hardly be relieved—some wondered if they would ever be the same. As time passed, it became obvious that her death was the turning point in their spiritual pilgrimage. That couple got off the fence and into action. God became more real, more significant to that couple as a result of the loss of their child than He had ever been before.

It was the year his friend died that Isaiah “saw the Lord.” And what was He doing? Was He frowning or pacing back and forth? No, He was sitting down. The Lord was calmly seated on His throne. I think of majestic sovereignty when I read of the Almighty’s position. He was totally in charge. He was not wringing His hands, wondering what in the world He was going to do. He was “lofty and exalted.”

With height comes perspective. And His exalted role speaks of authority. Isaiah saw no confused or anxious deity, but One who sat in sovereign, calm control with full perspective and in absolute authority. Interestingly, the death of Uzziah is not mentioned again. From now on it’s the prophet and his God—His presence “filling the temple.”

Taken from Strengthening Your Grip by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2015 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc.

Used with permission. All rights reserved.

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