For Discouraging Days

Select verses from Isaiah 40, for when we want to despair, for when we forget that God, and not man, is in control, and for when we need encouragement, to know that God is our comfort and our strength:

A voice of one calling:  “In the desert prepare the way for the Lord;  Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.  And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all of mankind together will see it.  For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

A voice says, “Cry out.”

And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.  The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them.  Surely the people are grass.  The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”

… See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him…. He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young….

Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  Has it not been told you from the beginning?  Have you not understood since the earth was founded? 

He sits enthroned above the circle of earth, and its people are like grasshoppers.  He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.  He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.  No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

“To whom will you compare me?  Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.  Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?  He brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name.  Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing….

Do you not know?  Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary, and increases the power of the weak.  Even youth grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

(Isaiah 41:10) So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.