This is what the Lord says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’ They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.
Isaiah 49:8-10
While visiting my son in the middle of summer in Chandler, Arizona, he suggested we take this little walk by the springs. If you’ve been to Arizona in the summer you know how hot it can be. You step outside and it’s like walking into an oven. The heat hits your face and, I swear, it bakes every inch of your body. As we were walking, dripping in sweat, we finally arrived at this little oasis of cool refreshing water. Just even seeing it with our eyes was invigorating.
There is something about water that brings life. It takes what is parched, dying and desolate and renews, replenishes and restores. As the Lord freed the Israelites from captivity, He reversed their current situation. Instead of hunger and extreme thirst, He offered them nourishing food and refreshing springs of water. He released the captives and those in darkness and commanded them to “Come out” and “Be free!”
While this can seem abstract as we’re not the Israelites nor are we in captivity, if we’re honest with ourselves, we are closer to their situation than we realize. Through the sin we’ve allowed to enter our lives, we find ourselves in captivity. There is a darkness that surrounds us that keeps us from walking in the light. Yet the Lord wants to reverse our situation and He is calling each of us, as well, to “come out and be free!”
He desires we walk in freedom. He desires that we will never spiritually and emotionally hunger and thirst again as we find our sustenance in Him. We were never created to walk in desolation but to walk in His freedom.
If you’re held captive to fear, your past or your current situation, drink deep into the springs of Living Water and heed the words of the Lord; “Come out and be free!”
