SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 35
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. [Isaiah 35:8]
A path through the wilderness, where food and drink are miraculously provided for the journey; a path that leads to a place of joy and blessing.
Only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. [Isaiah 35:9-10]
A highway through the wilderness where the ransomed (rescued) are led to a place of freedom and gladness.
Yes, this passage is an echo of the Exodus, where God miraculously provides a way through the wilderness to a promised land of blessing.
But Isaiah is looking ahead to a time when God will act again, when He will come to the aid of those who desperately cling to Him through the darkness and misery of this world.

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. [John 14:5-6]
Show us the way, show me the way (a cool song by Styx), the cry of every human heart.
Jesus is the Way… but what does that mean?
Yes, this world is a wilderness, a place of misery, hardship and suffering – even the rich don’t seem to be happy.
But how does Jesus provide a way of blessing that leads to eternal joy?

Two ways come to mind.
One, by opening the way to life through the cross, this life through Jesus is but a path to eternal life.
Two, by showing the way of life through how He lived, we can follow Jesus through all the challenges we face and imitate His example, supported by His Spirit.
Entrusting our eternal security into the hands of Jesus, we now live each day strengthened by His Spirit to live Jesus-shaped lives, or to live the Jesus way.
For the present, we strive to obey Jesus, we rely on the power of the Spirit, we trust in His mercy and help, and we sing with gladness and joy because of all that He is to us.
Jesus is the way to life, Jesus is the way to live!
Because He lives, we can not only face tomorrow, we can face today!

To those who refuse to live according to the selfish spirit in the world, who deny themselves for the sake of the Lord and others, who endure hardship to be a blessing to others, and who seem to have a harder life as a result, Isaiah offers this encouragement: Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” [Isaiah 35:3-4]

Am I walking His way, along His path, through this wilderness?
Am I drinking from the streams that He provides in this wilderness?
Am I walking according to His life, His truth, His way?

PRAYER:
Lord, following You and serving others is truly the way of gladness and joy. Strengthen my feeble hands and steady my knees to persevere along this path. Refresh me with streams of Spirit-water.