Isaiah 48:1-22

My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives. § Just as a father the son in whom he delights. § He bruises, but He binds up; He wounds, but His hands make whole. § Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. § I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of...

He will choose our inheritance for us. § He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so the Lord alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him.I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go. § Who teaches like Him?We walk by faith, not by sight. § Here we have no continuing...

I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil. § “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace.It pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself … having made peace through the blood of His cross. § Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a...

 And He said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart, into a desert place, and rest a while" (Mk 6:31).

In the early days of our lonely pilgrimage, the desert is nothing but burning heat and barren sand. As we "keep on keeping on," we see our desert become full of springs and blossom as the...