So Much More Than A Pep Talk

Gassed. Have you ever heard of this term? It means to be “drained of energy, spent, exhausted.”  Sometimes you hear the term used when a runner is said to be so depleted of energy that there’s “nothing left in the tank.” That’s the kind of exhaustion that Isaiah describes so well in this text. What follows are words of tremendous encouragement that God gave to Isaiah to share with the people as they struggled during their exile in Babylon and for us today. However, if we’re not careful, we may sometimes find ourselves watering them down into something far less impressive. These words are much more than simply a pep talk.