For a number of years now I’ve spent most of my Sunday devotions in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 so I would refocus each week on God’s holiness. One might think after several years that I might have plumbed the depths of these passages, but this morning I saw something fresh.

In Isaiah, the prophet is before the throne of God while the creatures around the throne proclaim “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” In Revelation, John is before the throne while the creatures around it proclaim “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” For some reason it never occurred to me to ask why they are saying something different.

I think there’s a point being made here. God spoke in the Hebrew Bible through many prophets. The people of those times saw many miraculous works. But for several centuries God was in this sense silent. Many questioned whether God was still with them; perhaps He’d left completely on account of their unfaithfulness. John tells us that the God who raised Jesus from the dead is the same God who brought His people out of Egypt, who put them to exile and brought them back. The God who was is the same God today, and He will still be the same God in the next age.

This speaks not only of God’s uniformity, but also of His immutability and faithfulness. Over all the ages He is a God who does not change. He is forever holy above all things. In every age He is faithful to His word and faithful to His precepts. This same God who called the Israelites, who sacrificed His Son for the many, is the same God today who is faithful in our lives to bring about blessing and hope for the age to come when He will be faithful still.

I've been discovering the depths of my own weakness and absolute dependence on God in my struggle to faithfully love and serve Him in the face of spiritual opposition, human opposition, and even the opposition of my own stubbornness, laziness, fear, and sin...I am so weak and small compared to the overwhelming evil and pain in the world--so unable to do anything to stop it.

I know the warning in 2 Timothy 3:12-14:

Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.  But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.  You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of....

But continuing is sometimes a discouraging prospect.

Thank God for His mercy in answering prayers for encouragement!  I came across the poem "Who Am I?" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and was moved to tears.  It's strange how a confession of weakness from a man known for his strength can actually make me feel more hopeful.  But I identify with his words in my own small way (my situation is only the tiniest fraction of his), and reading them brings me into communion with all the weak, dependent, barely-hanging-on lovers of God throughout time--weak men and women who were nevertheless used by God.

Who Am I?
by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Who am I?  They often tell me
I would step from my cell's confinement
calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
like a country squire from his country house.

Who am I?  They often tell me
I would talk to my warders
freely and friendly and clearly,
as though it were mine to command.

Who am I?  They also tell me
I would bear the days of misfortune
equably, smilingly, proudly,
like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I know of myself,
restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat,
yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
trembling with anger at despotisms and petty humiliation,
tossing in expectation of great events,
powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?

Who am I?  This or the other?
Am I one person today, and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once?  A hypocrite before others,
and before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved? 

Who am I?  They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine.

All glory to you, God, for whatever you accomplish through us and in spite of us!  We are completely yours to use however you will.