Heart Tracks - Not What, But Who

"Then I heard the Lord asking, 'Whom should I send as a messenger to My people? Who will go for Us?' And I said, 'Lord, I'll go! Send me.' " Isaiah 6:8...."Those who hear Him must listen with a soft heart.....A soft heart will say yes to whatever God wants because it trusts His goodness implicitly. A soft heart complies with God - not one day, not tomorrow, but today." Chris Tiegreen

Sheila Walsh tells the story of how, as a young girl, she asked her mother how she could say yes to God when she didn't know what might lie ahead for her in response to her yes. She said her mother's answer was, "We don't know what we're saying yes to, but we do know Who we're saying yes to." It is that simple truth that make all the difference for us.

It so easy to make Isaiah 6:8 all about a missionary call, but it is far more than that. Saying "yes" to God in all things is a far more sweeping declaration that just a willingness to evangelize for Him. It is a declaration of obedience, submission, trust, and courageous fearlessness in the face of every danger and impossibility that might lie ahead in our ever deeper walk of faith in and with Him. When the Father calls a person, He calls all of that person into all of Himself. In essence, He speaks but three words to us in the call, "Trust and obey." In the midst of the unknown, we look to the known, the Father Himself. We have said yes, even though we have little if any idea as to what we've said yes to. Yet we step out because we do know who it is we've given that yes to. We don't know the way, but we do know the way of His heart. And we can rest there. We can live there. We can move out from there, but in the moving out, we never move out from His heart. It's our dwelling place, just as we are His dwelling place.

Here we stand on the entry way into another new year. This is the 38th that I've embarked on since I met Him in Christ all those years ago. Each one was marked by a great unknown, but each one was also marked with an invitation to know Him who called me. In each of those years there were great challenges, deep joys and sometimes even deeper sorrows. There were giants in the land, and enemies surrounding me, but He called me on, into ever deeper experiences of Himself. His faithfulness, His mercy, His victory, His love.....and His forgiveness. There were deserts, there were shipwrecks. There were the betrayals of friends and loved ones, and yes, my own failures. In all of them, He continually revealed to me who He was, and who He is. And now, He calls me into what will be my 39th new year in Him. I still don't know what He calls me to, but I rejoice that He continues to call me into Who He is, and who He is to me. They say the more things change, the more they stay the same. Not so with Him. Though He's the unchangeable One who will never cease being who He is, He will also never cease to reveal to us an ever deeper revelation of Himself. So we can say "yes" to His call because we know Who it is that calls us. The adventure goes on. Deeper, ever deeper into Him. Our part, your part, is to trust and obey. Can we? Will we? Can, and will you?

Blessings,
Pastor O