“But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 (NLT).
Another translation of Isaiah 40:31 has, “They that wait upon the Lord..” Still another translation, “They that hope in the Lord...” Waiting, trusting and hoping in the Lord are closely related.
If I trust God, I will wait for his answers and the help He promises rather than abandon His ways and find my own sinful and self-serving solutions. If I trust in Him, I will hope for His gifts and delight in them. If I hope for His deliverance and blessings I will wait for them in confidence and trust.
There are some seasons of life that leave us feeling like we’re falling more than flying.
Losing my brother, my parents, my husband losing his job—finding a new one and just when we were beginning to reach out of the darkness that the lost job had put us in, my husband had a debilitating stroke that left him totally disabled. There were countless hours of rehabilitation with two more strokes that followed. All of this came in a few short span of years which definitely left a lingering feeling that I was falling again, again and again. All of it didn’t seem fair. Didn’t seem believable. Didn’t seem like so much loss could happen in such a short time. And rightly so, it left me feeling like the next loss was always just around the corner. I felt stuck in discouragement and doom, like it was impossible to get up from all the feelings of defeat I was wrestling with.
My guess is you too have had a season, whether long or short, that’s made you feel like it was going to be difficult to get back up.
Sometimes we wonder if our grief, disappointments or failures have pushed us to the point of no return. This is why this key verse has become my anchor for the days ahead. Reading it in the context of the entire chapter of Isaiah 40, verse 31 is truly where we see the power and promise: “But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”
In this chapter, Isaiah—a prophet and messenger from God—is speaking to people who are in extreme distress for a variety of reasons.
Seasons of falling bring these distress-filled feelings front and center. Throughout this entire chapter, Isaiah reminds his listeners that God is in charge of everything. But he also challenges them to wrestle with their doubt, sin, fear and questions.
Hard seasons bring questions. And just because we have questions doesn’t necessarily mean we’re questioning God. After reading this chapter in a sobering posture of the reality of life, I arrived at verse 31. Through Isaiah’s words, I’m reminded that our God is very real, incredibly strong and bigger than anything seasons of distress can bring.
He creates a way for us to go up higher, or as this verse says, “soar,” in the midst of it all.
How?
By waiting in trust for God to strengthen us through our sorrow.
But this isn’t necessarily a sitting-still motion.
It’s a space where we fill our time with worship instead of worry. It’s when we simply pray His promises when our words are hard to find in prayer. And it’s how we reject our distress-filled doubt with the reality of who our God is. All of these things can help us get up when the trials of this weary world try to keep us down. And one day, we’ll be able to look back on our seasons of falling and see the God who helped us get back up, again and again. Each day, when my heart starts to ache over the loss I’ve experienced, I pull out Isaiah 40:31 and let this promise from God help me back up.
God will do the same for you. Wait in trust. Worship through the worry. Remember who your God is. And find yourself experiencing a strength to carry on that can only come from heaven’s throne.
God is there for the Season, is the Reason and is your Lifetime.
A Season moves on, a season has a next stage, and it has an end point.
A Reason chose to be there next to you to help you out physically, emotionally and spiritually.
A Lifetime is when He is there, but not recognized when He stood by your side. He was there busy loving you even when you were giving Him nothing.
Make sure you are waiting and renewing your strength in the Lord and not looking in the wrong direction. Never forget the Lord is there for you for when no one else is.
TRUTH FOR TODAY
Psalm 27:14 (NIV) – “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
Isaiah 30:18 (NIV) – “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore He will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!”