⁵ Then I said:

Woe is me for I am ruined^[a]
because I am a man of unclean lips
and live among a people of unclean lips,
and because my eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of Armies. (Isaiah 6:5 CSB)

There are times when I can only cry out, ”Woe is me for I am ruined.”

Do you ever feel this way?

You see yourself and your weaknesses and are simply ashamed of who you are or your state. But possibly this is the moment when God lets us see ourselves in a light to be broken down enough to actually change.

In our scripture Isaiah goes on to also give the state of those around him. He knew that he was a byproduct of the society he lived in. He knew he needed to be cleansed of both his shortcomings and the shortcomings of the general society he was a part of. You see, we have both our internal sins and the sins we allow the society we live in to foster within us. The more we are apart, the more we become apart from God.

So what can we do when we get to this state?

We can only cry out to God and ask for cleansing, relying upon His promises and the burning coal to be brought to us. But in reality we do not need the coal to be brought to us because Christ already took on our sin. He already burned away our sin and allows us a place where we did not belong. Now we not only belong, but are heirs and children of the King.

So even when you are feeling ruined, there is a place to turn.