Isaiah 40:29
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak (powerless).
Isaiah 46:4
Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
Isaiah 61:2b-3 (HCSB)
Comfort all who mourn; give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. They will be called righteous trees, planted by the LORD to glorify Him.
Job 4:3-4
Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.
Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.
Psalm 147:3 (The Lord) heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
2 Thessalonians 3:3 The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
2 Timothy 4:17-18 But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength...and I was delivered. The Lord...will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to heaven.
Richard Sibbes
God knows whom to cheer up, and when and in what degree, and to what purpose and service; and remember always that these enlargements of spirit are as occasional refreshings in the way, not daily food to live upon. We maintain our life by faith, not by feeling.
As the strongest faith may be shaken, so the weakest, where truth is, is so far rooted that it will prevail. Weakness with watchfulness will stand, when strength with too much confidence fails. Weakness, with acknowledgment of it, is the fittest seat and subject for God to perfect His strength in; for consciousness of our infirmities drives us out of ourselves to Him in whom our strength lies.
The Bruised Reed on Isaiah 42:1-3
https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/sibbes/The_Bruised_Reed_-_Richard_Sibbes.pdf
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.”
If Christ be so merciful as not to break me, I will not break myself by despair, nor yield myself over to the roaring lion, Satan, to break me in pieces.
Let us not be cruel to ourselves when Christ is (so) gracious. There is a certain meekness of spirit whereby we yield thanks to God for any ability at all, and rest quiet with the measure of grace received, seeing it is God's good pleasure it should be so, who gives the will and the deed, yet not so as to rest from further endeavors. But when, with faithful endeavor, we come short of what we would be, and short of what others are, then know for our comfort, Christ will not quench the smoking flax, and that sincerity and truth, with endeavor of growth, is our perfection.
Let us take heed (of) a spirit of faint heartedness, rising from the seeming difficulty and disgrace involved in God's good ways. O beloved, it is a comfortable thing to conceive of Christ aright, to know what love, mercy and strength we have laid up for us in the breast of Christ. Let us make use of this mercy and power of his every day in our daily combats: `Lord Jesus, thou hast promised not to quench the smoking flax, nor to break the bruised reed. Cherish thy grace in me; leave me not to myself; the glory shall be thine.'
The Soul's Conflict With Itself
If we could sin more than he could pardon, then we might have some reason to despair.
Christopher Love A Spectacle Unto God
Look not so much on your sins, but look upon your grace also, though weak. Weak Christians look more on their sins than on their graces; yet God looks on their graces and overlooks their sins and infirmities. O it is good serving such a master, who is ready to reward the good we do, and is ready to forgive and pass by what is amiss. Therefore, you who have but little grace, yet remember that God will have His eye on that little grace. He will not quench the smoking flax, not break the bruised reed.
Thomas Case A Treatise of Afflictions
The (child) of God may be moved, but not removed; they may fall, but not fall away - fearfully, but not finally; terribly, but not totally. Prayer brings in God, and God gives strength to take back lost ground.
Thomas Brooks The Unsearchable Riches of Christ "12 Supports and Comforts to Uphold Weak Christians"
God reflects upon the least good that is in or done by weak (and wounded) saints, with an eye of love. We look upon tears as poor things, and yet God looks upon them as pearls.
The Lord will not cast away weak saints for their great unbelief, because there is a little faith in them; or for their hypocrisy because of the little sincerity that is in them; or for their pride because of the rays of humility that shine in them; or for their passion because of the grains of meekness that are in them. We will not throw away a little gold, because of a great deal of dross that cleaves to it, and will God?
William Gurnall The Christian in Complete Armour
For mercy and tenderness to his soldiers, there is none like Christ (who) poured out his blood as balm to heal your wounds.
The deeper sense thou hast of thy own weakness, the more fit thou art for the Spirit’s teaching. He can bear with thee that art weak and dull, if humble and diligent; as we see in the disciples, whom our Saviour did not disdain to teach the same lesson over and over again, till at last they say, ‘Lo, now speakest thou plainly,’ John 16:29 (NIV - ‘Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see…’)
John Flavel “The Character of an Evangelical Pastor”
https://books.google.com/books?id=1b9jAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA15&lpg
We must fight in defense of the truths we preach, as well as study them to paleness, and preach them unto faintness; but well-spent head, heart, lungs, and all; welcome pained breasts, aching backs and trembling legs; if we can by all but approve ourselves
Christ’s faithful servants, and hear that joyful voice from his mouth, ‘Well done, good and faithful servants.’
John Bunyan
Since the Father has given his elect to the Son, he will be gentle and patient towards them under all their provocations and miscarriages, for the Son has suffered for his people's ignorance, unruliness, falls into sin, and falling into error in life and doctrine. We should be amazed at God's patience and gentle carriages to his people.
Pilgrim's Progress
Christian at Hill Difficulty
"This hill, though high, I covet to ascend;
The difficulty will not me offend,
For I perceive the way to life lies here:
Come, pluck up, heart, let's neither faint nor fear!
Better, though difficult, the right way to go,
Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe."
Mr. Valiant-for-truth
"I am going to my Father's house; and though with great difficulty I have got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the troubles
I have been at to arrive where I am. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles, who will now be my Rewarder."
Mr. Feeble to Honest and Gaius after he was rescued from Giant Slay Good by Great-heart
"I expect more onslaughts, but this I've resolved to do - to run when I can, to walk when I can't run, and to crawl when I can't walk. My way is before me, and my thoughts are beyond the River..."
F.B. Meyer on Numbers 2:31 “They shall go hindmost with their standards."
Be merciless to yourself, but always merciful to others, always bearing the burdens of those around you, always moderating your pace to the weak and weary, as Great-heart did for the pilgrims.
John Newton Cardiphonia: Letters to a Nobleman
Psalm 103:14 “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.”
Blessed be God, though we must feel hourly cause for shame and humiliation for what we are in ourselves, we have cause to rejoice continually in Christ Jesus, who, as he is revealed unto us under the various names, characters, relations, and offices, which he bears in the Scripture, holds out to our faith a balm for every wound, a cordial for every discouragement, and a sufficient answer to every objection which sin or Satan can suggest against our peace.
If we are guilty, he is our Righteousness; if we are sick, he is our infallible Physician; if we are weak, helpless and defenceless, he is the compassionate and faithful Shepherd who has taken charge of us, and will not suffer anything to disappoint our hopes, or to separate us from his love.
He knows our frame, he remembers that we are but dust, and has engaged to guide us by his counsel, support us by his power, and at length to receive us to his glory, that we may be with him forever.
C.H. Spurgeon
O warrior of the Cross, your shield may be covered with fiery darts—but no dart shall ever reach your heart! You may be wounded in head and hand and foot. You may be a mass of scars, but your life is given you! To Christ are you given and you shall come out even from between the jaws of death—and you shall overcome Satan by Christ’s power! Only trust Christ!
Octavius Winslow Daily Walking With God
Your faith may be feeble, your strength small, your grace but little, your knowledge limited, your experience defective; yet, if by the Eternal Spirit you have been led out of yourself, to take refuge in Christ, you are one over whom God rejoices with joy. (Zephaniah 3:17)
J.C. Ryle Holiness
Just as a parent is pleased with the efforts of his little child to please him, though it be only by picking a daisy, or walking across a room — so is our Father in Heaven pleased with the poor performances of His believing children. He looks at the motive, principle and intention of their actions — and not merely at their quantity and quality.
F.B. Meyer
Ah, afflicted one, your disabilities were meant to unite with God's enablings, your weakness to mate His power. God's grace is at hand - sufficient - and at its best when human weakness is most profound. Appropriate it and learn that those who wait on God are stronger in their weakness than the sons of men in their stoutest health and vigor.
The Psalter of Eternity could not be complete without the reminiscences, set to music, of the grace that ministered to us in our earthly trials, and brought us up out of the furnace of pain. Then we shall tell how God's glorious arm went also at our right hand, as at the right hand of Moses; of how the stony paths became soft as mossy grass; of how He led us out of the scorching heat into green pastures and waters of rest; and how He provided for us to make for Himself a glorious Name. Yes, we will make mention of the Lord, according to all that He shall have bestowed upon us, according to His mercies, and according to the multitude of His lovingkindness. We will tell the story of how the Angel of His Presence saved us; how, in His love and pity, He redeemed us; and how He bare and carried us all the days of old. We shall have a great story to tell! "My heart and my flesh fail, but Thou art the strength of my heart and my portion for ever! (Psalm 73:26) None of them that trust in Him shall be desolate." (Psalm 34:22)
On Hosea 2:13
"I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth."
The valley of Achor is the emblem of defeat, failure, and the fainting heart. Down its long pass the terrified fugitives had fled, bearing to Joshua the story of defeat (Joshua 7). Is there a single life without its valley of Achor? Is there one of us who has not gone up against a foe, which in the distance appeared quite insignificant, but it has proved to be more than a match for all the resolutions with which we had braced ourselves to meet it. Can good come out of such evil, and sweetness from such bitter despair?
The tragic story told in the seventh chapter of Joshua tells how that defeat wrought good. The disaster led to the searching out of the sin of Achan, and the cutting away of gangrene, which, otherwise, would have eaten out the heart of Israel. It led to humiliation, self-examination, prayer and faith, and finally to victory. May we not say as much of our defeats? Certainly, it would have been better had they not cast their shadow on our past; but they have not been without their lessons of priceless value. Each valley of Achor has had its door of Hope. Sin has reigned unto death, but the grace of God has reigned unto eternal life. Through our sins we have learned, as never before, to appreciate God's forgiveness; through our failures we have been taught our own weakness, and led to magnify the grace which is made perfect in weakness.
A.W. Tozer
The God who desires our fellowship and communion...is quick to mark every simple effort to please Him and just as quick to overlook our imperfections when He knows we meant to do His will.
Leslie D. Weatherhead A Private House of Prayer
A friend to whom he went in one of his dark moments suggested that he switch his mind from his anxieties (pain, disappointments, failures, suffering, sadness, etc.) and make a complete commitment of himself to God, even though it might mean that he had to accept his recurrent fear as a wounded soldier accepts his disability.
A. B. Simpson
Some day even you, trembling faltering one, shall stand upon those heights that Joshua knew. As you look back upon all you have passed through, all you have narrowly escaped, all the perils through which He guided you, the stumblings through which He guarded you and the sins from which He saved you; you will shout, with a meaning you cannot understand now, "Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb" (Revelation 7:10).
Fernando Ortega "Hear Me Calling, Great Redeemer"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9N4bqg-UjI
Charles Wesley Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1740
“Jesus, Lover of My Soul”
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/j/l/jlmysoul.htm
Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last.
Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone, still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed, all my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of Thy wing.
Wilt Thou not regard my call? Wilt Thou not accept my prayer?
Lo! I sink, I faint, I fall—Lo! on Thee I cast my care;
Reach me out Thy gracious hand! While I of Thy strength receive,
Hoping against hope I stand, dying, and behold, I live.
Thou, O Christ, art all I want, more than all in Thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy Name, I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am; Thou art full of truth and grace.
Plenteous grace with Thee is found, grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound; make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art, freely let me take of Thee;
Spring Thou up within my heart; rise to all eternity.
Isaiah 50:4
The Sovereign LORD has given me his words of wisdom, so that I know the words to comfort the weary.