Isaiah 12 is a short but fitting conclusion to the section pointing to Israel’s choice between trusting God or trusting Assyria. This chapter comes directly before the second section of the book’s first unit, where we see several judgments towards various nations. 1 Even before the judgements begin to come, we see a promise and anticipation of the song that the remnant will sing with joy over their salvation. (Isaiah 12:4) Even amid coming judgement, Isaiah gives a song of praise, pointing us to a God that will comfort and is worthy of trust. It is interesting to note that the references to ‘that day’ prior to this text are days that bring fear because of not trusting in God (cf. 2:20; 3:18; 4:1; 7:18, 20-21, 23) , but chapter 12 brings us a day of hope. A hope that is found only when the focus has been turned back to Him for help, and not looking for it in other places or other people. This hope is ultimately in the coming Messiah which brings us circling back to the beginning to...

Ms. Clara walks into her emptied closet, her ‘war room’ has been made ready for the battle to begin. If you have seen the movie War Room, you will likely remember this scene. It depicts a ‘prayer warrior’ and often will bring someone to our mind that we know personally. We all have that person that we think of that seemingly know how to really “Get a hold of God”. They have their list of answered prayers as proof of their accomplishments. However, if we are completely honest, looking at our own lives our batting average in the ‘prayer closet’ doesn't seem so hot, so anytime we feel that we need prayer, we must shop around for the right person to pray for us. The danger with this thought process is it will often cause us to give up praying ourselves in lieu of someone who can do it right. The problem is that this is completely foreign to the Scripture.   “Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the ...