With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation and you will say in that day, “Give thanks to the Lord”, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the peoples, and proclaim that His name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously. Let this be made known in all the earth. Shout and sing for joy, oh, inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the holy one of Israel.
– Isaiah 12:3–6
I love these verses. Did you catch the scene? God saying there’s coming a day. This is to his people amidst their struggles and amidst their struggles specifically because of their sin. He says, “One day you’re going to draw water from the wells of salvation with joy and you’re going to say in that day, “Give thanks to God.” Call on his name. Make his deeds known among all the people. Proclaim his name is exalted. Sing praises to him for he has done gloriously. Shout, sing for joy, and as I read those verses, I think that is the Christian life every day. This is that life you and I can live every day.
Isaiah 12:3–6 reminds us that we can call upon God, for he listens to us.
This is why I would say from the beginning of your day, it is important to rise and be with God and draw water from the never-ending well of salvation. To with joy get alone with God. Give thanks to him, call on him, sing praises to him.
Then yes, to pray for things in your life, to go into your day with this perspective; you have been saved by God. You are a child of God. And you can call upon his name and he listens to you. You have the privilege every single day and all day long of drawing water from the well of his mercy, his grace, his strength, his peace, his hope, his wisdom, and everything from him. So shout, so sing for joy to God and proclaim his name, make his deeds and his character known among all the peoples right where you live, wherever he leads in the world. This is the Christian life, so let’s pray that God would help us to live it today.
Isaiah 12:3–6 reminds us that we can draw from the never-ending well of God’s peace, joy, and love.
Oh God, we praise you for the well of salvation, for the never-ending well of hope and peace and joy and love and life that we find in you, Jesus. So help us to drink from it today, to draw water from it today with joy. We pray that this would be our life every day amidst whatever we’re walking through with joy to draw water from the well of your salvation, especially on days that are hard, especially on days when we’re grieving or we’re struggling to drink deeply from the well of your salvation. To give thanks to you, to call on your name and then to live, to make your deeds known among the peoples, to proclaim your name that is exalted, to share the good news of the well of salvation that anyone can drink from without price.
It’s possible by your grace and your mercy. God, help us to be generous, compassionate, loving, and bold, and to share the gospel today so that other people might drink from this well. Lord, help us to see people around us as starving for water and help us to lead them to the well of salvation that’s found in you. God, please, by the power of your Spirit in us, help us to be bold and compassionate, loving, and sharing the gospel with people around us.
Prayer for the Kharga People
God, we pray for the spread of this gospel to all the peoples of the world. We pray for the Kharga people of Egypt, 38,000 of them… No known followers of Jesus among this Bedouin people group in the desert areas west of Alexandria. God, we pray for the spread of the gospel to the Kharga people of Egypt… That this desert people might drink from the water, from the well of your salvation.
God, please may it be so. Send believers to them. Send brothers and sisters in Christ to them. Use our resources, use our prayers right now. God, open their eyes. The eyes of the Kharga Bedouin in the desert of Egypt. God, help them to be reached with the water, with the joy, with the well of your salvation. God, we praise you. We shout and sing for joy to you… And we pray that you would use us today to make your praise, your glory, your salvation known on all the earth. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
