Something to Think About
“And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise Thee: though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortest me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” Isaiah 12:1-3
These verses are the believer’s song of redemption. One day the Lord Jesus Christ will return, and all believers will be united as one church, the bride of Christ. There will be no denominations, no divisions, and no differences among the people of God. There will be nothing but praise from the lips of the redeemed for the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Even though the Lord had been angry many times at His people, His anger will depart, and He will only have words of comfort for His children. It’s like when a parent has to punish a child for some misdeed, but then takes the child in his arms and comforts the child to let the child know that his parents love him, and the punishment is because of that love. Most parents do not like to have to punish their children, but they want them to make wise choices in life, thus the children have to be corrected when they make wrong choices. I think perhaps that God doesn’t like to punish His children either, but He punishes for the same reason.
Matthew Henry wrote, “Even God’s frowns must not put us out of tune for praising Him; though He be angry with us, though He slay us, yet we must put our trust in Him and give Him thanks. God has often just cause to be angry with us, but we have never any reason to be angry with Him, nor to speak otherwise than well of Him; even when He blames us, we must praise Him”. Job said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). God is our salvation. Not only does he save us, He keeps us saved and safe in His arms. He provides for us daily and nothing happens to us without His knowledge. Everything that happens to us is first filtered through the fingers of His hands. There’s no need to worry about anything for God knows our destiny and will walk with us every step of the way throughout eternity.
God is our strength. We have no strength apart from Him. He gives us the ability to get up each morning and face the day, helping us with every decision that we make each day. God is our song. He enables us to sing in the darkest hour. Not only does He enable us to sing, He gives us the songs to sin in praise of Him for He alone is worthy of all praise. He is our salvation. There is no salvation apart from Him. Jesus is the only way of salvation. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). God’s well of Living Water never runs dry. We can always draw from it for whatever we need to live the Christian life. It is a real joy to know that God is always there, always ready to help us in our need. The well of salvation is deep, and there is Living Water for all to drink. If only folks would get thirsty for this Living Water!
I ask believers as you all think on these scriptures which identify the only real hope that folks have to live an abundant life on earth and spend eternity in heaven with Christ, to consider this: Where would you be if you were still numbered among the lost, those who have rejected Christ and the gospel? We do not know specifically how our earthly lives would turn out as an unbeliever, but we might have some ideas about it. One of the things that I think about quite often is how my life would have turned out had I not been adopted at four months of age. First of all, had abortion been legal, I probably would never have been born. Secondly, if the teenage, unwed girl who gave birth to me decided to have kept me, I suspect that my life would have been very different. I might have not been reared in a Christian home, taken to a Bible-believing church, and come to know Christ as my Lord and Savior. Those things could have happened, but I am just grateful for the home in which I was reared by two loving parents. It is scary to think that I could have been numbered among the lost. However, I believe in the providence of God, that He has guided my life up until this present moment of time and will continue until the day that He calls me home. For that I am forever grateful.