Here I Am

"Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.'" (Gen. 22:1)  "When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, 'Moses, Moses!' And he said, 'Here I am." (Ex. 3:4 New American Standard Version)

"Here I am."  Those words began to haunt me as I studied my Sunday school lesson this week.  God has been reminding me in soooooo many different ways that by ignoring this blog, I am being disobedient to Him.  There have been pastor's sermons, songs, Sunday school lessons, even an impulsive comment from a friend.  He even "poked" me through the devotional posts by a friend on Facebook. 

Oh, I had all kind of excuses.  "I don't have time. You know, God, it takes one hour to do a post properly and I have a house to clean, dogs to take care of, a half hour of exercise to do every day.  Not to mention laundry, dusting, vacuuming, cooking.....  And now with Christmas coming, there are parties, ceremonies, performances, basketball games, gifts to buy and wrap, and more cooking...."

The more I tried to get out of doing what God wanted, the lamer the excuses became.  Then came the lesson I had to teach yesterday because our regular Sunday school teacher had had cataract surgery and I am the class substitute teacher.  The passage?  Genesis 22: 1-13. 

In just 13 verses, Abraham says TWICE, "Here I am." So today I searched the phrase "here I am" through the whole Bible and I was surprised at what I found.  In Genesis 31:11 and 46:2, Jacob tells the LORD, "Here I am."  In Exodus 3:4, Moses tells the LORD, "Here I am."  In I Samuel 3:16 and 12:3, Samuel responds to God, "Here I am."  Isaiah has the same response in Isaiah 6:8.  God responds to Israel, "Here I am." in Isaiah 52:6 and 65:1.  Even Ananias, when called by God to go and lay hands on that murderer Paul, responded to God's call in Acts 9:10, "Here I am."

So that begs the question, "Where am I?"  All the reasons (excuses) in the world do not wipe away my disobedience to God's call. 

God wants my total obedience, body, soul, mind and spirit.  A pastor once taught me that obedience is doing the right thing with the right attitude at the right time. 

This is my time to be obedient.  Okay, Lord, I think I have it this time.  Here I am.