In that day you will say: “Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.
                                                                          Isaiah 12:4 NIV

My friend Wendy told me about a study performed on 2 groups of people. The test involved putting their hands in buckets of ice-cold water.  The first group was not given a length of time. The second group was told “Keep Your Hands In The Ice” for 2 minutes and they were successful.  The first group all pulled their hands out BEFORE the 2 minute mark. Without an ‘end in sight’, they gave up.

Sometimes you can give up in the present because the future seems unattainable, unrealistic or improbable. That’s what the Israelites struggled with when Isaiah declared the above prophesy. This verse says “In that day” the people of Israel are to give thanks to the LORD. When describing “In that day”, my NIV Study Bible Notes tell me that “The day of victory and joy, the positive aspect of “the day of the LORD”…Israel is restored and the people praise God.”1 In the day they were living in; victory, joy and restoration seemed unlikely at best. They had to exercise their faith to believe God’s promise of victory would come true. God didn’t give them a date when their struggles would be over, just a promise that they would end.

So my friend, you’re not the first person to struggle with how to Keep Your Hands In The Ice when you don’t know how long they’ll be cold.

[tweetthis]Take courage to believe in the promise God gave you! #SoulH2O [/tweetthis]

He held true to this promise spoken through Isaiah and He’s capable to follow through for you too!

Prayer

Father…Thank You for the promises in Your Word that guarantee I’m going to come out on top in the end! Help me to know that if victory hasn’t happened yet, then it’s not the end! Please strengthen my faith in you; my confidence to trust you at Your Word so in “that day”, the day you’ve already planned for, I will give thanks! In Jesus Name…Amen

1        NIV Study Bible note on Isaiah 10:20,27 pg. 1399

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Sherry Stahl