Monday, November 22, 2021
Sometimes strengths, weaknesses and limitations just lead to weariness. Some people are so weary that a good night's sleep, a stiff cup of coffee, and a week's vacation can't solve it. You've experienced soul fatigue. What do you do when you're weary, or when you just feel so weak?
Monday, November 22, 2021
Isaiah 40:29-31
TOP 10 LIFE LIFTERS: For the next few weeks, we'll be re-releasing some of the top Life Lifters we've ever published since we started this devotional series. Join us as we look back at popular topics like prayer, joy, trust, and hope!
Hi everybody, thanks for joining me for another day of Life Lifters. This week, we have been talking about strengths, weaknesses, and limitations. God has a purpose for the strengths, weaknesses, and limitations in your life. Today, I want to talk to you about what to do when you're weary. Sometimes strengths, weaknesses and limitations just lead to weariness. You're tired of having to exercise strength, you're tired of being weak, you're tired of having limitations, and you're just weary. Some people are so weary that a good night's sleep, a stiff cup of coffee, and a week's vacation can't solve it. You've experienced soul fatigue. It's not just physical. It's every part of you that is immaterial: it's emotional, mental, spiritual. What do you do when you're weary, or when you just feel so weak?
You wait on God. You turn to God. I want to look at a very classic passage in Isaiah 40:29-31. I think these verses speak mostly for themselves. I just wanted to encourage you, if you're weak and weary, take these words in. Isaiah says, "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's Isaiah the prophet saying from God? He's saying everybody is weak and weary. It's not just a physical vitality thing. That's what I said at the beginning. It's the immaterial side. He says that even youths grow tired and weary, even young men stumble and fall.
Isaiah tells us to hope in the Lord. Hope is an interesting word. Another translation says, "Those who wait on the Lord." When you're hoping on God, you're waiting on God. Waiting is not a passive activity. It's an active activity in the text. Those who wait actively through hope on God will renew their strength. They will get back the strength that they were lacking. When you do that, you'll be soaring on wings like eagles. You know, if you watch eagles soar, you'll notice they don't flap a lot. They know how to leverage the wind around them to just glide. It's a beautiful thing to watch an eagle glide. What's he saying? He's saying when you wait or hope on the Lord, he'll renew your strength. And you'll glide like an eagle, you'll fly above the problems of mediocrity, and it won't take that much work, because God is working through you.
Isaiah also says that you will run and not grow weary, walk and not be faint. Well, I don't know about you, but I run to the mailbox and I'm winded. Well, I'm not quite that bad. But I get on the treadmill for a half hour, and I'm tired. He's saying you will run and you won't grow weary when you wait and hope on the Lord. You will walk and not be faint. This has the idea of going for a long, long walk. A day's journey was 20 miles, meaning you can walk 20 miles in a day. That's a long walk. And so you can do that and you won't faint. Here's my point. When you're weary, wait or hope on the Lord. renew your strength in him. He will give you mental reinvigoration, spiritual vitality, emotional booster shots. He'll encourage you, but you have to wait on the Lord. To wait on the Lord means you're looking to him. You're hoping in him. you're basing everything that energizes you on him. Life will drain you faster than anything. God will replenish you. I often think of coming to church as like a rechargeable battery for people. There aren't as many of those today, but you plug them in and they charge up. Every Sunday we charge people up and, hopefully, get them through another week. I hope this passage will also do that for you.
Let's pray. Father, there are people listening to me who are weak and weary. I pray that they would find a renewed strength as you promised through your prophet, Isaiah, in this text. I pray that they will run and not grow weary, walk and not faint. That they'll soar through life like an eagle, effortless, gliding, riding the winds the way you created them. I pray that you strengthen them now. In Jesus' name, amen.
