Awestruck Day 5: Acceptance & Apathy

When I tell people about salvation, I will sometimes pull out a pen and hand it to them and say something like this: 

“This pen is like the free gift of salvation and eternal life. I can hand it to you, but you have to receive it. You don’t have to pay for it. In fact if I charged you, it would no longer be a gift.

BUT, you can do something with this gift. You could write me a thank you card. 

Now salvation is the same way. We receive the gift, paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. We don’t pay for the gift, but the rest of our lives are like a big thank you card for God.”

     Isaiah, as we saw yesterday, received the gift of absolution and atonement of his sins. So, what was his thank you card back to God?

⁸ Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Acceptance of the assignment: Our atonement of sin is not simply to be received selfishly, but as Eph. 2:10 states, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” We are saved to serve and not saved by serving. When we pray with a sense of worshipful awe, we are compelled and motivated to respond to so great of a cleansing and atonement. Awe always leads to action.

    Notice also that God seeks us to join Him in His work. Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God material is summarized with the first three realities that 
1) God is always at work around you 
2) He pursues a love relationship with you and 
3) God invites you to become involved with Him and His work.

⁹ And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ ¹⁰ “Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.” ¹¹ Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, the houses are without a man, the land is utterly desolate, ¹²The Lord has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. ¹³ But yet a tenth will be in it, and will return and be for consuming, as a terebinth tree or as an oak, whose stump remains when it is cut down. So, the holy seed shall be its stump.”

     Apathy of others: “Keep on hearing, but do not understand.” We will become keenly aware of the apathy of others once we truly worship God in reverential awe. Exposure to light without the appropriate response will result in blindness. The Pharaoh of Egypt hardened his heart, and then the Lord hardened it too.

I hope you are committing more and more to prayer to God. In so doing, experience the awe of worshiping Him. Cry out to Him, “Here I am.” Don’t worry, He’ll send you somewhere.