PRAISE THE LORD (PART 2)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In that day you will say:

“I will praise You, Lord. Surely God is my salvation; He has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

Isaiah 12:1a, 2-3

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Praise the Lord. It’s something that should be a part of our daily spiritual discipline. We certainly have a great deal to be thankful for, that’s for sure.

Yesterday, in the first devotion on this series of things we should praise the Lord for, we looked at the opening verse of Isaiah, Chapter 1, and read where we should praise Him for His forgiveness and mercy and grace. You’ll recall that the people of Israel were taken into exile, part of God’s imposed punishment upon them for turning away from Him and worshipping false gods. But His judgment was not to last forever and at the end of chapter 11, we saw where He would reclaim His people from captivity and restore them. Such is His compassion and love for His people. That although He will correct, He will also restore. Praise the Lord for that.

But the Lord God Almighty just doesn’t stop at restoral. For restoral is but for a set period of time. As sinners, we will again find ourselves erring and out of God’s favor, needing His discipline yet again to move us back on the path of righteousness, needing again to experience His compassion and mercy and restoral.

No, the Lord wished to give us much more than a return to favor with Him. He desired for us to one day be with Him forever, cleansed from the transgressions of the world that keep us separated in this world. He wanted to rescue us from the hardships and trials and afflictions and temptations we face in this life, liberating us and transforming us in the blink of an eye to be without blemish and cured from the sin disease we are all infected with.

In other words, God didn’t just wish to restore us. He wanted to save us.

Praise the Lord for that.

Yes, out of His deep love for you and me, God was willing to offer up His only Son, Jesus, perfect and sinless in every way, as a living sacrifice to take away the sins of the world. No other animal sacrifice would be required to atone for sins as was the custom in Old Testament times because In Jesus, there came a new testament or covenant promise that whoever placed their faith in Him would not perish but rather live forever (John 3:16). In Jesus, mankind was given a chance for salvation, to live with Him and God the Father forever. God did this for us. Praise Him for it. Isaiah predicted God’s people would do just that. Look again at our verses for today:

In that day you will say:

“I will praise You, Lord. Surely God is my salvation; He has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”  Isaiah 12:2-3

Surely God is our salvation, the Creator of it as He has been the Creator of all things. If God had not sent His Son Jesus, we would not have had the advent of salvation. So praise be to God for His gift of Jesus, who didn’t just offer us worldly water to drink but rather water from the wells of salvation, water that would lead us to joy and life everlasting. Before I close this devotion, we should revisit two parts of Jesus’ ministry connected to this devotion today. The first passage is Jesus speaking to an audience gathered at the Feast of the Tabernacles and the second captures His encounter with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well Look at these two passages and receive the good news found within with a spirit of thanksgiving, knowing and trusting that everyone who places their trust in Jesus as Savior will have the joy through the Spirit and life everlasting through the living water He speaks of:

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. John 7:37-39a

Now He had to go through Samaria. So He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to His son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” John 4:4-15

Two proclamations of Jesus regarding what one can receive through Him, one for life in the here and now, the other for life after this present worldly life ends.

Whoever believes in Jesus as Savior will have the Holy Spirit alive and well within them, a Spirit that produces a groundswell of living water to flow out of that person as they go forth to make disciples of all nations. In Christ and under the lead of the Holy Spirit, their actions and words will be of Christ and thus be life to all who receive their works or words. Those who receive this living water of the Spirit sent out by Christ followers will be like the woman at Jacob’s well, eager and ready to drink the water that will quench their thirst forever and create within them a spring welling up so they too can share the Spirit with others until that day when their time is done and they go to be with the Lord forever.

Friends, God has given us salvation through His Son Jesus. Hallejulah!

Won’t you praise Him today and every day for that?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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