Today's Quick Word
Today’s Quick Word
Isaiah 40:28-31 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, […]
Isaiah 40:28-31 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no-one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
What a difference it makes to our earthly pilgrimage, our daily life, to ‘HOPE in the LORD’. The Hebrew word translated ‘hope’ does NOT have a ‘fingers-crossed/hope-for-the-best’ sort of meaning that the English word ‘hope’ often carries. It means to ‘wait-in-TRUST-and-CONFIDENT-EXPECTATION’.
Even the youngest/strongest/fittest human beings who rest on their own human resources alone will grow weary and stumble (as many of us have discovered all too well in our own experience), but when we realise that there IS a God who is all powerful and in control of ALL aspects of our lives, and we come to KNOW him for ourselves in this capacity, we experience the truth of the promise of verse 31!
And I like the order in which the promise is given. We might expect the progression of the promise to be: “They will walk and not be faint, they will run and not grow weary, they will soar on wings like eagles;” as if there is some development in our spiritual maturity, and ability to cope, with the passage of time.
But NO! There may be seasons of blessings when we feel like we can ‘soar on wings like eagles’, and for these we are very thankful. There may be other times when we are able, by God’s grace, to ‘run and not grow weary’. But, for me, the crown of blessing is knowing that in the ordinary, seemingly boring, humdrum experiences of life I can just ‘walk and not be faint’, because ‘he gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak’, and has PROMISED to do so!
Why would I NOT ‘hope in the LORD’? Why do I so often try to ‘go it alone’, trusting in my own feeble ‘strength’?
