{RE:} Renewed Strength

March 22nd, 2022

Wednesday: Renewed Strength

Happy Wednesday morning friends! We're thinking about the places in our lives that need God's renewing power this week and today we will reflect on our own need for renewed strength.

Y'all know the drill this week since these seem to be pretty familiar passages. I am going to include both the NRSV and Message versions of this passage for you to read, but feel free to find another or use an app that might read the passage to you!

Read: Isaiah 40:28-31

"Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the the young will fall exhausted;
but those who wait for 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."
(NRSV)

"Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening?
God doesn't come and go. God lasts.
He's creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
gives fresh strength to the dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
they run and don't get tired,
they walk and don't lag behind."
(MSG)

Reflect:

Are you tired, weary, feeling like you're about to "stumble and fall" or ready to "drop out"? Isaiah says that's because so many of us are operating out of our own strength - and our energy is finite. But God's strength, energy, power, and creative imagination is LIMITLESS.

Take a moment this morning to tell God about your weariness. Sometimes we try to pretend like we have it all together, but there is no need to pretend with God!

I don't know anyone who enjoys waiting, especially when we know what we want to do or where we want to go. This word "wait" literally means to "wait or look with eager expectation." It's more than just sitting around, it's an eager and hopeful anticipation.

Sometimes we don't wait because we are comparing ourselves to others - when we get caught in comparison, we end up feeling like we're behind. Are you experiencing this kind of comparison that makes you feel like you need to "catch up"?

When we don't wait on the Lord, we end up running ahead of him in our own strength.

Are there situations in your life that you are trying to fix through your own strength or by hustling harder? What would it look like to wait on the Lord in that situation?

Waiting on God requires us to trust His character and believe that he is working to renew us - sometimes when we can't see any evidence of it yet! God's promise here is that our strength would be renewed so that we could soar like eagles. Have you ever noticed how eagles fly? They look so effortless, yet they soar with such strength and power.

Where is God inviting you to wait with him so that he can renew you?
As I was writing this, this song kept repeating in my head (especially the bridge that comes up around minute 6 or 7). Listen to it when you have time today! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3TYG7Q_fj4

Respond:

Lord,
my God,
my one hope,
hear me,
that I be not unwilling, through weariness,
to seek you,
but that I may always ardently seek your face.

Give me the strength to seek,
since you have made me in order to find you,
and have given me the hope of finding you more and more.
My strength and my weakness are known to you:
preserve the one
and heal the other.

My knowledge and my ignorance are known to you:
where you have opened to me,
receive me as I enter;
where you have closed to me,
open to me as I knock.

May I remember you,
understand you,
love you.

Increase these things in me
until you have wholly renewed me.

-Augustine (354-430)

5 Comments

Add Your Comment

Nick Tebordo - March 23rd, 2022 at 4:53am

Isn’t it amazing how much we need to learn to depend on God. We need Him to remind us to seek Him! Without Him, we would forget to wait! I want to wait on the Lord to renew my strength. Without His prompting, I forget to do it! I’m off on my puny strength and power. Thank You God for Your faithfulness! I can’t believe that my fellow believer, Augustine , was on this same journey-facing the same struggles 1700 years ago. Isaiah wrote these words nearly 3000 years ago. I need renewed strength! Lord, I come to You and I wait. On my way to the gym, I will listen to the song Kaitlyn suggested. Have a blessed renewing day fellow travelers.

David Edelstein - March 23rd, 2022 at 5:02am

I've repeated the Isaiah passage to myself when I have been running in races. It sustains me and keeps me moving forward when my body tells me to stop.

Susan Blais - March 23rd, 2022 at 5:35am

I am very experienced and waiting on the Lord. I mentioned before about a promise that the Lord gave me about 30 years ago. I heard him say “I know your body is not being kind to you, but I have a new bike for you“. God didn’t say when he would give me this body, even though I was ready for it at that very moment. I have been waiting 30 years on his promise to me, but I do know that he is faithful and I will wait upon the Lord. One thing I have been doing over the years is to train myself to ask the Lord to help me as soon as I know about the situation. I used to stew about things, But now I have practiced asking the Lord for his favor immediately when I need it. A more recent example was when I found that a prescription was going to cost me $1000 a month. Of course my initial reaction was to leave the prescription at the pharmacy, knowing that I couldn’t pay for it. But on my way home I remembered that I needed to place this need before the Lord. That need was taken care of within a week and without my intervention. God is good his answers sometime,But he is always faithful to complete it!

Melody - March 23rd, 2022 at 5:48am

I enjoy having two translations side-by-side here for comparison. It helps to see what the idiomatic language of the Message says in more traditional language--sometimes all those idioms distract me from the main ideas.

Watching an eagle soar is one of my favorite things about living in this area, but I had never connected that to this passage before. The first one I saw in the wild was when we had been here only a short time, over Cohoes falls. It was pretty rare them but we see them all the time now.

So I'm comparing the renewal of the eagles nearby with my own renewal--it is through increasing the health of the habitat that we are renewed. Rest, for me, only happens when my surroundings are nurturing. Caring for the health of my relationships, my community, and the natural world around my home really brings me to personal rest and renewal. Health in these areas leads to strength for my life with God and in my work.

Becky Thayer - March 23rd, 2022 at 4:39pm

Have you seen the size & length of eagles wings??? They are over 80” long!!!! No wonder we don’t need to worry about being lifted up!!!! Praise God!!!!