Morning By Morning #311

I will pour water on the thirsty land.

Isaiah 44:3

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

When believers fall into a sad, depressed state, they often try to lift themselves from it by bombarding themselves with even more dark and depressing fears. Yet doing so is not the way to rise from the dust but is only a way to continue in it. Instead they should chain their depression and doubt to “wings like eagles” (Isa. 40:31) and thereby increase their sense of God’s grace. It is not the law but the gospel that initially saves a seeking soul, and it is not legal bondage but gospel liberty that can restore a believer’s fainting heart after salvation. Submission to legalistic fear will not restore a backslider to God, but the wooing of God’s love to return to Jesus’ sweet embrace will.

Believer, are you thirsty this morning for the living God and unhappy because He is no longer the delight of your heart? Have you lost the joy of your faith and has your prayer become: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation” (Ps. 51:12)? Are you also aware that you are as barren and dry as “the thirsty land,” that you are not bearing as much fruit for God that He has a right to expect from you, and that you are not as useful in the church or in the world as your heart desires to be?

If so, then here is the exact promise you need: “I will pour water on the thirsty land.” You will receive enough grace for each of your needs, enough to fully satisfy each and every one. Just as water refreshes the thirsty, you will be spiritually refreshed and your desires will be fulfilled. Just as water brings drooping plants back to life, your life will be enlivened by fresh grace. Water causes the buds of plants to swell and causes their fruit to ripen. And God’s fruit-bearing grace will make you fruitful in His ways so you will enjoy every good quality of divine grace to the full once again. You will receive all the riches of God’s grace in abundance as though you were drenched in it. You will be like meadows flooded by overflowing rivers and fields that are turned into pools. Your “thirsty land” will become “flowing streams” (Isa. 44:4).

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Isaiah wrote that the children of Israel often were like a “desert and…parched land” (Isa. 35:1). Thus, we see the recurring theme of the need for God’s living water of grace for refreshment and restoration. Yet he prophesied of a day when salvation would bring great change. Here is his description:

Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs…The ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Isaiah 35:6 – 7, 10

The need for restoration is often true of the Lord’s church today as well. When we are sad and depressed, may we also recall these words of Jeremiah:

My soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’S great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.

Lamentations 3:20 – 25