Hi, and thanks for joining us for today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading titled Seeing a Future of Hope was written by Monica LaRose.

After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans worked to slowly rebuild.

One of the most hard-hit areas was the Lower Ninth Ward, where for years after Katrina, residents lacked access to basic resources.

Burnell-Cotland worked to change that. In November 2014, he opened the first grocery store

in the lower ninth ward after Katrina. When I bought the building, everybody thought that I was

crazy, Kotlin recalled. But the very first customer cried, because she never thought the neighborhood was coming back.

His mother said her son saw something I didn't see. I'm glad he took that chance.

God enabled the prophet Isaiah to see an unexpected future of hope in the face of devastation.

Seeing the poor and needy search for water,

but there was none, God promised to turn the desert into pools of water and the parched

ground into springs. When instead of hunger and thirst, his people experienced flourishing once

more, they would know the hand of the Lord

has done this.

He's still the author of Restoration, at work bringing about a future when creation itself

will be liberated from its bondage.

As we trust in His goodness, he helps us see a future where hope is possible.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Isaiah chapter 41, verses 17 through 20.

The poor and needy search for water but there is none their tongues are

parched with thirst but I the Lord will answer them I the God of Israel will not forsake

them I will make rivers flow on barren heights and springs within the valleys. I will turn the

desert into pools of water and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and

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