Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

 ³³  After they had spent time there, they were sent away from the brethren in peace to those who had sent them out.

 ³⁴  [But it seemed good to Silas to remain there.]

 ³⁵  But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching with many others also, the word of the Lord.”  Acts 15:30-35. 

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“³  Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.
    ⁴  Say to those with anxious heart,
         “Take courage, fear not
         Behold, your God will come with vengeance;
         The recompense of God will come,
         But He will save you.”
    ⁵  Then the eyes of the blind will be opened
         And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
    ⁶  Then the lame will leap like a deer,
         And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy
         For waters will break forth in the wilderness
         And streams in the Arabah.
    ⁷  The scorched land will become a pool
         And the thirsty ground springs of water;
         In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,
         Grass becomes reeds and rushes.
    ⁸  A highway will be there, a roadway,
         And it will be called the Highway of Holiness
         The unclean will not travel on it,
         But it will be for him who walks that way,
         And fools will not wander on it.
    ⁹  No lion will be there,
         Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;
         These will not be found there
         But the redeemed will walk there,
    ¹⁰  And the ransomed of the LORD will return
         And come with joyful shouting to Zion,
         With everlasting joy upon their heads
         They will find gladness and joy,
         And sorrow and sighing will flee away.”  Isaiah 35:3-10. 

“⁶  Each one helps his neighbor
         And says to his brother, “Be strong!”
    ⁷  So the craftsman encourages the smelter,
         And he who smooths metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil,
         Saying of the soldering, “It is good“;
         And he fastens it with nails,
         So that it will not totter.
    ⁸  “But you, Israel, My servant,
         Jacob whom I have chosen,
         Descendant of Abraham My friend,
    ⁹  You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth,
         And called from its remotest parts
         And said to you, ‘You are My servant,
         I have chosen you and not rejected you.
    ¹⁰  ‘Do not fear, for I am with you;
         Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God
         I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
         Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ ”  Isaiah 41:6-10.

“For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Romans 15:4-6.

1 Thessalonians 5:11
“Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.”

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“But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.

For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.

And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.”

And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.

 For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute.  In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”  Hebrews 6:9-20.