I have been walking with Jesus since I was eight years old, and I have been on the field for eight years now. Years ago, in the midst of discipling and mobilizing Kenyan women, I had a crisis of faith. As I was teaching hard topics such as unreached people, the eternity of hell, etc, I wondered—Do I even believe God is good?  

But then He met me one day (in the midst of a panic attack, actually), and I began afresh a new journey of discovering His character and re-learning all that He is. And it changed my heart forever. I loved Him. I adored Him. So then, I started trusting Him fully again.  

When we experience the true holiness, extravagance, and goodness of the Lord, we are also reminded of our desperate need for a Savior. Like Isaiah, we then see our depravity next to His perfection—“‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!’” (Isaiah 6:5) How quick we are to be distracted and dismayed by man, ourselves, and the world when we take our eyes off of who He is, just as I had all those years ago. We become fastened to the here and now. To our own understanding of how we think things should work. 

But the story of redemption is that God loves us too much to leave us there. The beauty of the gospel is what God has done eternally for us through Christ—as the seraphim temporarily offered for Isaiah through the coal from the altar of God. Jesus, our perfect Lord come down, has made us whole. Clean. What joy is there when we continuously bring this good news to the forefront of our minds! With joy and confidence we can then proclaim, “Here I am, send me!” for we have tasted and seen just how good the Lord is.

His holiness humbles us. His forgiveness causes us to rejoice. His forever hope lifts our eyes above our own circumstances and on to both Him and eternity instead.  

So, child of God, let us lift up our eyes today, tomorrow, and for all the days we are numbered here on this earth to the One who is “holy, holy, holy,” high and lifted up, yet in perfect humility brought Himself down to us.