“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD
JE-HO-VAH 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. Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things; this is known in all the earth.” Isaiah 12: 2,3, & 5.
God is our salvation, shelter, strength, and source of supply. How often do I try to do things in my own strength? How often do I run out of joy? How often am I empty of song? When the answer is ,”Usually”, I’m not doing myself any favors. My husband recently commented that I go into things headlong and with full force. He was concerned that I may have too many ‘irons in the fire’ and was gently advising me to SLOW DOWN…or at least limit how much I’m doing at one time. He is all too aware of how tired I can become when I don’t have a good balance.
A phrase in Isaiah 12:3 jumped out at me one day during my Bible reading; “with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” Wells of salvation. Now I know there is a historical context here, but sometimes something strikes you differently with a new meaning. One meaning of the word well in noun form is, “a plentiful source or supply”. Supply of what? In Philippians 4: 13, it is written, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Many times, though, I feel that God isn’t meeting my need and that maybe He’s not supplying wells of deliverance fast enough. “What’s the hold up?”, I sometimes want to ask.
I was looking on the Internet for a basic explanation and possible historical context of the phrase, ‘wells of salvation’ and found some things that will hinder us from ‘drawing from the wells with joy’. God is the supplier of life-giving water. In fact, there are references to Christ being and giving living water and has said, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” John 7:37b.
Anyone who knows anything about wells, knows there is a bucket at the bottom that is attached to a rope. When you need water, all you need to do is pull up on the rope and draw water from the well. When we feel limited in joy, when we feel that maybe God has quit providing, we may need to do some evaluation and figure out what’s holding up the supply. Here are some things to consider:
1) Fear and Worry → It’s as putting a ‘lid on the bucket’ indicating that our fear is bigger than our faith.
2) Burdens → Burdens are heavy as rocks, aren’t they? They are difficult and we tell God that it’s too hard to draw from His well of redemption and rest. In Matthew 11:30, Jesus says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Rest unto your souls…refreshment from the Life-Giver.
3) Bitterness → When you fill your life with bitterness, it just makes everything taste like vinegar. And God’s blessings can even taste sour.
4) Doubt → It keeps us from drawing from His supply in the first place.
5) Impatience → We don’t allow God time to work and in doing so, we never feel ‘filled’. We don’t feel as if God is listening or that He cares.
6) Hate → Hate is like tar; it doesn’t take much to spoil the water and it sticks to everyone who touches it.
7) Ignorance → When we trust in ourselves to make it through, when we don’t look in His word for answers, we don’t know the blessings that are available and we miss out.
8) Lust and Greed → Both are as messy as mud and certainly the weight of it all will not cause us to draw life-giving water from the Source.
9) Hurt and Unforgiveness → They keep us tied up in knots and keep the rope/ lifeline/prayerline to Christ tied up as well.
10) Jealousy and Anger → They make us want to strike out and keep others from drawing from His supply..and in doing so, we hurt not only them, but also ourselves.
11) Pride → Pride says, “I don’t need any help”. And will leave you dry and alone.
12) Business → When we become too busy for God, too busy to draw daily out of His Word, we become too tired to draw from His supply of strength.
So how do we ‘draw water’ out of the wells of salvation that God freely gives?
• We need to thirst after the living water and realize that only He can supply all our need.
• It takes faith to believe that He will do for us what is best. And that what He gives us is what we need for this moment, for this day.
• Sometimes, letting our guard down, letting go of control, letting the ‘bucket’ go all the way down in the well means hardship. That’s where the water is deep and is at it’s most refreshing.
When I feel I’m having ‘trust issues’ with God, when I become afraid, when I have lost my strength, when I have no song and no joy, I can go through the “12 Step Program” above and do some self examination to figure out what’s holding up the ‘bucket of blessings’.
Because God is my Salvation, my Confidant, my Comforter, my Strength, my Song…with joy in Who He is, I will draw life giving blessing. Wells of salvation…God never runs out, He has more than enough for all who call
on Him.
Out of the wells of salvation:
→ I have the Savior.
→ I have a Confidant who can be trusted.
→ I have the Deliverer of fear and the Provider of comfort.
→ I have His perfect strength when my strength is gone.
→ I have a song to sing and a story to tell. His story of “the excellent things that is known in all the earth.” (Isaiah 12:5) I want to be a part of the ‘excellent things’ which can only be found out of the wells of His salvation.
