Sunday 16 July 2017

With joy

Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
‘For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song;
He also has become my salvation.’ ”
Therefore with joy you will draw water
From the wells of salvation. – Isaiah 12.2-3

I love these two verses kind of tucked into Isaiah’s prophecy here. The image here reminds me of the story of the woman at the well and Jesus offered here eternal life from the ‘well of salvation.’

But it is not just eternal life, as good as that it. Jesus says that we can draw for the well but that we can do so with great joy.

I think we Christians can at times forget about the importance of joy. Sometimes we can act like life is a drudgery. We can almost make it sound like we are extra spiritual if we are suffering for Jesus. Christians walk around downcast and dark and living a life that on one could possibly desire for themselves.

Sure, we are going to have bad days. News is going to shake us and make us sad and we are going to get depressed.

That’s why we are reminded to draw water from the wells of salvation with joy. At the end of the day we can always rejoice in the knowledge that we are truly saved and that no matter what storm we are going through we have the joy of the Lord as our strength.

No matter what storm we face there ought to be that deep, abiding, eternal joy drawn from the well. There ought to be that ‘joy unspeakable and full of glory.’

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