Friday, April 17th, 2009

Friday, April 17th, 2009

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 to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they 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.

In this classic passage, for Christians who are wearied and beat down with life and all its trouble, as we are strangers and pilgrims here, mostly when quoted verse 28 is left out. However, verse 28 is the bedrock for understanding and applying 29-31.

Verse 28 asks two simple questions. Don't you know this fact? Haven't you heard this before? God is a God who was, who is, and who is to come. He is the everlasting one, who has no beginning and no end. He is the one who made every single tiny molecule and particle in this universe. There is not a single thing that exists that was not made by Him and the Word of His power.

I am here reminded of the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Elijah was in the great showdown with the prophets of Baal (a god made by man's hands) before king Ahab of Israel. They were going to determine which god was true, the God, YHWH, or the god Baal. Thus, Elijah let the prophets attempt to call down fire from heaven in Baal's name. Elijah waited and waited, taunting the false prophets as they were cutting themselves and praying to nothing. He said to them, maybe your god is sleeping, maybe he is on vacation. Pray louder and harder, and perhaps he will hear. Elijah taunted the prophets of Baal exclaiming that perhaps their god has grown tired.

But God, on the other hand, says here that He doesn't grow tired or weary. God does not ever need a break. God doesn't need to take a nap. He created this whole universe, and every second of every day, from the beginning of creation until now, God has been upholding this universe by His inexhaustible power. It is not a challenge for Him, it doesn't take Him a lot of effort. He created, He sustains by the Word of His Power, and He is actively engaged in it. Thus, the statement of His understanding is unsearchable is understood in light of this. Try to even look into God and how He does things, and I will become lost in His vastness.

Now, having understood and getting a grasp on God's inexhaustible power, and the fact that He will never grow tired or weary. Knowing that God's power is unlimited and can be applied at any time and any place, and is being applied at every time and every place. I now have a framework to understand verses 29-31.

Sometimes I continue day after day without stop, going, working, doing, and working with others and my family, and I become weary. I grow tired of sometimes seeing what seems like no progress in what I am doing. I stumble and slip, fall on my face, wanting to give up, wanting to quit. However, this verse is a great boon to me.

When I am faint, tired beyond measure, and cannot go on any longer. When I have no more might or strength left in me. When I am faint and weary and want to give up. When I am exhausted and know that I cannot go on any longer.

This is when God's attributes must be remember. This is when I need to tell my soul that in my own power I won't make it. In my own might, I won't make it. In my own might or strength I won't make it. It is at this moment, that I must run to Jehovah, the Lord. He is the one who is all-powerful, and never gets tired. He is the one who sustains all life, and has an inexhaustible supply of power. He is the one whose child I am. He alone is the one who I must run to.

For, He tells me that He gives power to those like me who just can't make it any longer. He promises here, that when I am at the end of my rope, when I can't take it any more, He will renew my strength, if I wait on Him and for Him. If I can't take it any longer and am about to give up, I must wait upon God.

God will renew my strength, in times of exhaustion and powerlessness. He will lift me up by the very source of energy that created the universe, and give me some of that energy necessary to make it. Once I have waited on God, cried out to God, and He has answered, and done what He has promised, renew my strength, then, the results of being dynamically empowered by God will follow.

When I am crawling on the ground, moving but centimeters at a time, God will come, renew my strength, then I will get up and move and fly like eagles. Eagles, amazing creatures can fly so fast, and so long, that God brings this analogy to me to show me what His power can do. Then, to describing for me what God's power can do, He tells me that I can then run and never get tired. I will keep going and going like the energizer bunny. I can walk and never be faint.

However, without the understanding that it is the power of God that comes and dynamically invigorates me, I would just be walking in my own strength and power. This is stupid, foolish and brutish. God is the one who made me, all of creation and the entire universe, and to think that I could operate in this world He made without relying on His power and strength, I would be a fool.

Thus, as this week has been incredibly long, and I have probably put in about 60 hours of work already this week, and I still have a Sunday School lesson to write, school work to do, and a project at work that needs finished, I must remember that my strength comes from my Creator and Savior. Without Him, I cannot make it and I will not make it. Through Jesus Christ, I have been given salvation and ready access to God. I must run to Him today and ask Him to renew my strength, because I am out.

Oh God, through Jesus Christ my Savior. Let me see your beauty and wonder today. Let me do all that I do so that you would be glorified and your name magnified. Let my weariness not affect me, and let me in this hard week reflect the love of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. Let me not be short and testy with people today, but let me show them my Savior, and show them that only in the power of God can we make it through the troubles and trials of life. Amen.