In His Time

Isaiah 65:1
(1) I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, "Here am I, here am I," to a nation that was not called by my name.

I wasn't asking for God, were you? I was not seeking Him. Yet He was there and He was ready to take me. He presented Himself to me and then I became His. Of course, as we've gone over before, this was not some kind of "wooing," but it was a process where He transformed my heart.

Think about where this stands in Scripture. We're nearly at the end of Isaiah. We've seen how the nation of Israel messed up their side of the covenant that God made with them. We've seen how God has promised to restore a remnant to Himself.

But here we see the promise that He will take those who haven't been seeking Him at all. The "nation" refers to the Gentiles. As we stand 2000 years after the cross this doesn't seem like such a big deal, but it certainly would have been when this was written. The idea of the Gentiles coming to God was unthinkable. And here I am as one of God's children.

Do not lose sight of this if you are His! The fact that He called you and saved you is amazing by itself, but even more so if you consider that you were not part of the first stage of the plan. We've always been part of God's eternal plan, but we could not have seen this at the time of Isaiah. Rejoice to be part of the chosen!