With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.
In that day you will say:
‘ Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;make known among the nations what he has done,
and proclaim that his name is exalted.
Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things;
let this
be known to all the world.Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,
for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.
’ Isaiah 12:3-6
What does that actually mean? I was thinking back to my early days as a Christian. I fell in love with Jesus first and my faith grew outwards from that point. Although I was a cradle Catholic and brought up attending mass each week. It wasn’t until an experience in my teens that I made sense of some things to do with Christianity. It was the 1970s
It was Jesus who made sense first and I couldn’t get enough of reading the gospels. It seemed it fed my spirit and nourished me. Then some young woman in a coffee shop with amazing hair talked to me and ignited in me a desire to read scripture daily. Jesus. She wasn’t a perfect person and was all over the place in her emotional
Jesus became my centre, and I fell in love with the characteristics of the man he was. Obviously not sexual love, instead a mysterious engrossing fascination for the first months.
I could understand when I read about
That meant I didn’t find it hard to believe. After Jesus and the Gospels, I then discovered the letters. Letters church leaders sent to each other for encouragement or guidance. These weren’t too difficult to follow, although a little harder. But
Then, last of fall, I started reading the Old Testament,
I was lucky though as I hit upon a method that helped. I would read the scriptures only that Jesus referred to begin with. And try to make sense of them first. I reckoned if it was good enough for Jesus; it was good enough for me as well. I’m always logical in my thinking, although not everyone can see that!
So
Slowly and
At last, this brings us to today’s passage. “With joy you shall draw water from the wells of salvation.”
This, I discovered, was not some literal instruction. Of course I knew that. It was instead an almost poetic and allegorical statement of a spiritual truth.
Let me go through it with you. Of course, you have the whole passage at the beginning of the chapter.
As a
To draw water! I think of how important Walter is to you. Not not only is your body made-up of lots of it, but you are also totally reliant on it for your own life to continue. To continue to
Yes, with
It is a source of joy, yes. If that doesn’t seem possible, just try it out. God doesn’t mind rising to the challenge. After all, his love is beyond your imagining.
Do we need a bucket to receive this joy? Well, strictly speaking, no, not at all. We need actions, though.
We do this by becoming present. This takes practise of course. For me, the most useful time to do this is
I’m intentional about it and decide that I want to spend time with God. Ideally, I find somewhere quiet, but I have sometimes had to pray on a crowded tube train on the London Underground. When there, I shut my eyes
My preference is to start by inviting the Holy Spirit to be present. By saying something simple like, “breath of God, breathe on me.” Or “Lord, send your Holy Spirit to be present.” It is a simple statement or declaration of readiness.
You
I have become used to silence in private or public prayer, and I find when in silence God breaks through with me. It might happen that my thoughts go to something important to me. Either something I have to
After some time spent like this on different days and in different places, you will
I think the effects
I’m reminded of the scripture that says, “When you pray, times of refreshing will come upon you....” [Edit Note. Find
Hopefully I have said enough to interest you. Let’s conclude with a prayer.
Father God, I ask you to guide me with your Holy Spirit. I thank you for your