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ISAIAH 40:31 “BUT THEY THAT WAIT UPON THE LORD SHALL RENEW THEIR STRENGTH, THEY SHALL MOUNT UP WITH WINGS AS EAGLES; THEY SHALL RUN, AND NOT BE WEARY; AND THEY SHALL WALK AND NOT FAINT.” (KJV)
“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (NKJV, TLB)
“Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.” (NASB)
“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.” (NIV)
Yes, this is a long verse to memorize. But, oh, what a message! I’m pushing 71 years old now and I know what it feels like to wish I still flew like an eagle. Oh, how I long to walk and not faint.
I was on the Southport High School Cross Country team that won two State championships in a row in 1970/71. We had ten runners who had run under ten minutes or faster in the two mile run. How I wish I could still run and not be weary. Whether you are talking about the pains of life and sorrows of growing older or just the weariness of struggling with all of life’s trials and troubles, it is so common to admit that we are just tired all the time.
Lest we think of this as just physical tiredness, look at those in the ministry. Those labors turn young men into old ones rapidly. In the business world or the educational world or the world of parenting and family troubles, we all get tired. And sometimes, it seems like we will never get rest.
As much as we like to convince ourselves that just working harder and running faster helps us to get more done, isn’t it interesting that Isaiah tells us that the secret is to wait on the Lord. Sometimes, you just need to stop. Stop the constant race for success. Stop the feeling that doing more always produces better results. Stop the striving to always make yourself better by harder work and more effort. Surely the secret can’t be to stop and wait on the Lord?
Some have suggested that the writer was meaning something more like what a waiter or waitress does for us as they wait on our order at a restaurant. Certainly, service and sacrifice to our Lord is important to our spiritual growth. But here, I get the sense that what Jesus would teach us is the need to WAIT.
How many times during His ministry did He get away from everyone to be alone and pray to the Father? While He was sweating like great drops of blood in Gethsemene, alone and waiting for the answer He was really hoping for, did He not stop and wait? Would we expect Him to suggest we do any different?
Wait! I purposely used two photos above of what we usually do when we think we wait. Have you ever checked your watch while you were “waiting” on the Lord? We are so oriented toward maximizing our time that we can’t separate ourselves from our cell phones…from our connection to the world for two minutes.
The times I have actually found this verse and its instructions to be truest in my life were those times I bowed my head, kneeled on my knees and waited on the Lord to hear my prayers and answer my cries. During those times when it felt like the world was falling apart, the only relief and rescue I could find would come from stopping everything else, pouring my heart out to Him and waiting for Him to tell me what to do.
There have been times, rare as they have been, when I discovered that if I waited on Him long enough and oriented myself to His timescale, that the result would be strength, relief and renewal. We want renewed strength. We want to fly like an eagle again. We want to run again, not aimlessly, but with ease, effectiveness and complete freedom from weariness. And, if I take this verse literally, all I have to do is learn to wait…on the Lord.
This seems like a pretty simple “if-then” solution to the problems of our weary lives. If we wait on the Lord, then He will renew our strength, He will help us to mount up with wings as eagles, we will run and not be weary and we will walk and not faint. Teach me Lord to wait.
One of the biggest reasons I memorized this verse so long ago and so easily was because I grew up singing it in a song. There have been several Scriptures like that so far.
Go to this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIVY48x0syQ Listen to this young man sing the song I have sung hundreds of times in my life. As you listen, focus on what it means to you to
wait on the Lord. Listen to the song many, many times…each time planting those words permanently in your heart. Take some time as you memorize this verse and see if you find it possible to learn the secret to waiting on the Lord.
Questions to ponder: Why is stopping so hard? Why does stillness evade us? Is it possible to practice the presence of God while we are running about so hard, trying to do so much? We say we take vacations so we can “get away” and “leave our troubles behind.” Why do we not apply that principle to our daily Christian lives? How often have we done so much and worked so hard to work out all of our problems only to find that Jesus had the answers all along and we missed them because we would not stop long enough for Him to tell us about them?
Other Scriptures to consider: Psalm 37:9 “But those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.” Psalm 132:2 “…so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us.” Isaiah 8:17. Isaiah 30:15 “In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God.”
 
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