Here I Am:  Responding When God Calls Your Name, by Brittany Rust

[Note:  This book was received free of charge by Chosen Books.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

This book comes with a worthwhile title that is the answer to an important Bible trivia question:  what is the response of a servant of God to receiving God’s call?  This is the sort of book that comes with some context that a reader might not be aware of.  After all, one of the fundamental aspects of charismatic thought is that ordinary believers receive various gifts and calls from God, not only more conspicuous leaders, and so just as charismatic writers focus a lot on the gifts of the holy spirit and how they are present in the contemporary world for faithful believers and of the reality of spiritual warfare, so too there is also a focus on heeding God’s call in one’s life.  Given the many distractions in our world, it is particularly hard not only to hear the still small voice of God’s word, but also to hold onto it with confident faith in the face of our doubts and insecurities.  And the author manages to give some very good encouragement to believers in this book, which is well worth appreciating.

This particular short book of a bit less than 200 pages begins with acknowledgments and an introduction and then contains twelve chapters in three parts.  The first part of the book contains two chapters that address the obstacles we face in heeding God’s call (I), through the noises in our head (1) and the fears and doubts and insecurities that we face (2).  The second part of the book provides a lengthy series of caste studies of people who confidently responded to God’s call in the pages of scripture (II):  Abraham the Patriarch (3), Jacob, the deceiver (4), Moses, the leader (5), Samuel, the judge (6), Isaiah the prophet (7), Ananias, the disciple (8), and various Old Testament pillars (9) and New Testament leaders (10).  Through this section of the book the author offers a rich selection of biblical quotations and very thoughtful analysis.  The third part of the book then contains two chapters on the great “Here I am,” from Jesus Christ (III), looking at the obedience of the Son of God to the will of the Father (11) as well as God’s Great “Here I Am” both to Israel and the contemporary church (12).  After that the book concludes with a few notes.

One of the most interesting aspects of this book to me was the way in which the largest part of the book consisted of various case studies of ways that God called different people with a variety of different tasks.  The case of Ananias, for example, is instructive.  Ananias is listed as a member in Damascus, but not necessarily anyone who was viewed at the time as an important leader.  Yet he was asked to go to the blind Saul and pray on his behalf, when Saul had been on his way to Damascus precisely with the intent of torturing and persecuting people like him.  Yet despite Ananaias’ entirely understandable concerns, he heeds the call that God gives him and goes to Saul and responds to the call of God, and Saul later becomes the Apostle Paul, with dramatic importance for the growth of Christianity and the development of the New Testament.  To be sure, not all of God’s more obscure servants will be called to something so impactful, but this book gives the reader a great deal of encouragement that if we can overcome our own self-doubt and the distractions and cares of this world, that God can indeed work mighty things through us.  And that is a message well worth hearing and heeding.