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.
When it comes to renewing our strength, it’s not only just for mere renewing, but beyond that. For an illustration – let’s take a bird with weak wings. Suppose, this bird can’t fly even after gaining strength in its wings. That is worthless, yes, it may flap it, may create some wind and the wind may raise the dust, but without helping it fly creates no value. Likewise, in believers’ lives – if there is just raising dust praying with tongues and big sounding words, praising and thanks giving with loud voices, or great music, that is worthless to a believer if he is not making any progress in overcoming the sins like – Anger, Lust, Proud, Love of money and women, it’s worthless.
It’s a pity that Christianity is spreading out just with dust by flapping of wings – but Christianity is not soaring high up on the mountains like eagles do. Just gaining weight, height for a person is nothing unless actual maturity in thinking, speaking and acting is in progress.
Another illustration: if you see the practices of driving vehicles in Asian countries, the one who has almost no aim, or immature driver, they are the one who drive hastily and raise the dust with their vehicle speed. The ones who are immature in thinking drive carelessly to throw mud, dust and road waters to pedestrians. Same thing, most of the time, you will see in churches, among believers. It’s good to spread the gospel, win souls. But let’s keep in mind, we are not doing like it says in Matthew 23:15.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
It’s a harsh condemnation for Pharisees and scribes by Jesus. Lets hope and pray, it’s not the reality of many churches.
Increase in the number of believers in local churches is good, praise the Lord. It’s God who brings increase. But is that increase just filled up with just converts or the local church is raising up real disciples of Jesus Christ.
Christianity – race of the Faith is not just a 1000km race, it’s a marathon – the distance we don’t know, but God alone knows the distance. Our responsibility is just to keep running. Earthly running – sure, it will bring exhaustion. But when you are running the race of Faith – by renewing your mind – it says, they shall run and not be weary. The last part is so beautifully written – “they shall walk and not faint”. Even though it’s a race, we are not supposed to run all the time – with a great speed, but there comes consistency when we keep it up with walking, but never stop.
Trusting the Lord from Heart, soul and body is the key. And our Lord Christ Jesus wants us to run the race by running but not all the time running, also with walking.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize. / Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. / Therefore I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like I am beating the air. …
Let us see how clearly Paul has mentioned. Our race is not just to run, not just a formality. Rather it’s to run/walk with aim. The aim is to soar high, mount up with wings like eagles do. Otherwise, eagles won’t be eagles. God would not mention eagles without a purpose.
Psalm 27:14 Wait patiently for the LORD; be strong and courageous. Wait patiently for the LORD!
In a single verse we can see “wait for the Lord” comes twice. It’s so important to wait for the Lord. What is waiting upon the Lord. A clear picture of waiting upon the Lord we can see here.
In Exodus 33:15, Moses said to the Lord, “if you don’t personally go with us, don’t make us leave this place. 16 How will anyone know that you look favorably on me – on me and on your people – if you don’t go with us? For your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all other people on the earth.”
What does presence mean here? The answer we found on verse 19 where Lord replied “…. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.” If we are not practicing mercy and compassion towards others that we face, then we are not in the presence of the Lord. Waiting upon the Lord means to seek his presence where we can practice mercy and compassion of the God. We are called to practice this in all sectors, family, workplaces, church, communities, etc.
Ephesians 3:16 I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being,
Strengthening for sure is visible outside. Many people say it’s the way of speaking, health and wealth. But it’s in our inner being that the Spirit of God strengthens us! It’s mercy, compassion, motives and thoughts in our heart without any kind of hypocrisy! It can be achieved only through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let us praise God for this!