Isobel's Secret Choice

Isobel Kuhn accepted an invitation from the president of Moody Bible Institute where she attended to speak to the students about their spiritual lives. As she prayed, she felt a need to encourage students to form a habit of putting the Lord first each day. She used 2 Chronicles 29:11 for her text: "My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to burn incense" (KJV).

She challenged her classmates to make a covenant with the Lord to spend one hour a day (for about a year) in the Lord's presence, in prayer or reading the Word. To keep her hour each day, Isobel would go at 5:30 each morning to the one place she could be undisturbed--the cleaning closet. After 30 minutes, she went to the dining hall to set tables. The other half-hour had to be found at the end of her day.

At the close of the year, Isobel was asked to lead the devotional at the students' Junior-Senior party, and to play the role of a Dutch Grandma in a skit. Her previous week had been so full of work and study that she had not had one moment to prepare the devotional. By suppertime, she was hungry, exhausted, and didn't have any devotional prepared. Before she sat to dinner, she realized she had half an hour due on her quiet time. After the party, she knew she and the other juniors had to clean up, and she would not get to her room till midnight. The day would be gone.

So should she eat supper, or skip supper and prepare a devotional, or give that half-hour to God? Isabel stood for a moment undecided; then, throwing herself on her knees by her bed she sobbed, "Oh, Lord, I choose you!"

She just rested in God too weary to form words. Suddenly the sense of His presence filled the room. The weariness left her and she felt relaxed, refreshed, bathed in His love.

 Isobel said, "As I half knelt saying nothing, but just loving Him, drinking in His tenderness, He spoke to me. Quietly, but point by point, He outlined for me the devotional message I needed to close that evening's program."

Isobel ran down to the banquet, slipped into her costume, and went through the program. At the end, she gave very simply the devotional message God had given her during her supper hour. Such a quiet hush came over that festive scene that she knew He had spoken, and she was content.

More than twenty years later, Isobel was home from China, visiting with friends at Moody. A group of her former classmates were reminiscing. "One Junior-Senior party always stands out in my memory," one said. "I forget who led it but it was a Dutch scene and the devotional blessed my soul. I've never forgotten it." She had indicated the date, so Isabel knew. She was thrilled.

Isobel wrote, "Of course I did not spoil it by telling her who led that devotional. In God's perfect workings, the instrument is forgotten. It is the blessing of Himself that is remembered."

Thank You, Jesus, for those who make their time with You the center of their day and then allow You to have every ounce of glory for the results.

"Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you" (Matthew 6:6).