Sometimes you just have to let the text speak for itself. I memorized Isaiah 35 a while back (I wish I could recite it now!). Here are the promises:

• Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and
• the ears of the deaf unstopped.
• Then will the lame leap like a deer, and
• the mute tongue shout for joy.
• Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
• The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
• In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
• And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way.
• …
• But only the redeemed will walk there, and
• those the LORD has rescued 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 35.5 – 10, NIV)

It’s prefaced by verses cited in Hebrews 12:

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, NIV)

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. (Hebrews 12.12, 13, NIV)

PS I’ve recommended Lectio 365 for your Lenten devotionals. It had a lovely comment on Isaiah 35 last week. If the “wilderness” for you is a challenging time of some sort…

...God’s blessings may come to me not instead of this wilderness, not in spite of this wilderness, but actually within it. – From Lectio 365, February 20, 2026