this is what i will be sharing @ tomorrow's women's meeting here at EL Church-Forest Hills:
Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it arrives? The eagle will fly to a high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it. The eagle does not escape the storm. It simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rises on the winds that bring the storm.
When the storms of life come upon us — and all of us will experience many personal storms as we go through this life — we can rise above them all by understanding that the storm is really just a challenge brought to us by God as a means to lift us up. After all, growth from challenges is what life is about. When we understand this, we will be able to rise above the winds of the storms that bring sickness, tragedy, failure and disappointment in your lives. We can soar above the storm.
Let me ask you a question: Have you ever felt like quitting? Your job? Your family? Your life? To me, it’s understandable to feel like that because I’ve been there. There were times in the past when life just seemed too difficult and the only answer seemed to me to just leave everything behind and start anew. There were times when the future seemed TOO dark and it took every ounce of strength in my body to just get out of bed in the morning and pretend like my life was going to be OK.
There are people, unfortunately, who, when this happens to them, turn to drugs, to booze, to gambling, to sex with someone who is not their spouse. And, sadly, sometimes, people even take their own lives.
For us who are children of God, in those difficult hours, days & years, when we feel like giving up, we can turn to this magnificent promise from Isaiah 40:31: "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.” Just a quick reminder, though, that this promise is only one that we can claim if we are truly a child of God. I’m assuming that everyone here is saved, but if you are not, you know how simple it is to become a child of God — just pray and ask Him to come into your heart. Once you are His child, His promise in Isaiah 40:31 is yours to claim anytime you need it.
So, let’s take a few minutes to discuss what this verse can mean to us TODAY. First of all, God promises that He will help us fly. We just saw a beautiful picture of what happens with the eagle when a storm is coming. Well, that’s what God can do for us. He can lift us above our difficult circumstances and show us our problems from a heavenly perspective. When we look at our circumstances from God’s perspective, we should be able to see how small that difficulty is because we see how BIG our God is.
The next promise from God in this verse is that He will help us run. I’m sure you’ve had those days when you just seem to be running from one place to the next, never stopping to eat or rest. During those times, God promises to give us the strength to run and not be weary.
We all know about that adrenalin rush that you sometimes get just when you think you just can’t go any further, that “second wind.” That is also our wonderful God giving you that extra burst of energy to finish the task ahead of you. How awesome is that?!! With God helping us run, we can keep going and accomplish the purposes that God has in our lives, whether it be taking care of our family, finishing up an important project at work, cleaning our house, witnessing to a friend about the Lord, preparing for our CE class, etc.
The third promise from Isaiah 40:31 is that God will help us walk – they shall walk and not faint. This deals with the routine in our lives. This routine may not be very exciting to others, but this routine is important to us and to others who depend on us. Just think what would happen if you fainted and couldn’t accomplish something that your family needed you to do one day. I know that as a mother, when my kids were small, if I failed to pick them up on time from school, there could be severe consequences. They could decide to start walking home and maybe get hit by a car when they are crossing the street. They could get into the car of someone they THINK they know and get kidnapped or worse... Imagine how devastating either of those two scenarios would be to any parent! Our routine CAN be boring and tedious at times, but without it, we would just be living too chaotically, not getting anything accomplished and what good would that be to ourselves and our families and others around us who depend on us?
But, God knows the importance of our routine. So, He is right there walking it with us, every minute of every day and He promises to keep us from fainting, so that we can do what we need to do on a daily basis.
But, how can we avail of these promises? The secret is in the very first phrase: “wait upon the Lord.” A big part of waiting upon the Lord is to spend time worshipping Him, reading His Word & talking to Him in prayer. If we would only wait upon the Lord and remain quiet in His presence, we would receive the wisdom and strength that we need to keep going day after day, week after week, year after year. Psalm 27:14 reminds us, “Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.”
And what happens when we wait on the Lord? He renews our strength! That word “renew” actually means “exchange.” So, when we wait upon the Lord, meditating on His Word, talking to Him in prayer, we exchange our weakness for His strength. After all, He has ALL the strength that we will ever need to keep going, so we should make waiting upon the Lord a top priority in our daily lives. After He renews our strength, we shall mount up with wings as eagles! We will run and not be weary! We will walk and not faint!
When the storms of life come upon us — and all of us will experience many personal storms as we go through this life — we can rise above them all by understanding that the storm is really just a challenge brought to us by God as a means to lift us up. After all, growth from challenges is what life is about. When we understand this, we will be able to rise above the winds of the storms that bring sickness, tragedy, failure and disappointment in your lives. We can soar above the storm.
Let me ask you a question: Have you ever felt like quitting? Your job? Your family? Your life? To me, it’s understandable to feel like that because I’ve been there. There were times in the past when life just seemed too difficult and the only answer seemed to me to just leave everything behind and start anew. There were times when the future seemed TOO dark and it took every ounce of strength in my body to just get out of bed in the morning and pretend like my life was going to be OK.
There are people, unfortunately, who, when this happens to them, turn to drugs, to booze, to gambling, to sex with someone who is not their spouse. And, sadly, sometimes, people even take their own lives.
For us who are children of God, in those difficult hours, days & years, when we feel like giving up, we can turn to this magnificent promise from Isaiah 40:31: "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.” Just a quick reminder, though, that this promise is only one that we can claim if we are truly a child of God. I’m assuming that everyone here is saved, but if you are not, you know how simple it is to become a child of God — just pray and ask Him to come into your heart. Once you are His child, His promise in Isaiah 40:31 is yours to claim anytime you need it.
So, let’s take a few minutes to discuss what this verse can mean to us TODAY. First of all, God promises that He will help us fly. We just saw a beautiful picture of what happens with the eagle when a storm is coming. Well, that’s what God can do for us. He can lift us above our difficult circumstances and show us our problems from a heavenly perspective. When we look at our circumstances from God’s perspective, we should be able to see how small that difficulty is because we see how BIG our God is.
The next promise from God in this verse is that He will help us run. I’m sure you’ve had those days when you just seem to be running from one place to the next, never stopping to eat or rest. During those times, God promises to give us the strength to run and not be weary.
We all know about that adrenalin rush that you sometimes get just when you think you just can’t go any further, that “second wind.” That is also our wonderful God giving you that extra burst of energy to finish the task ahead of you. How awesome is that?!! With God helping us run, we can keep going and accomplish the purposes that God has in our lives, whether it be taking care of our family, finishing up an important project at work, cleaning our house, witnessing to a friend about the Lord, preparing for our CE class, etc.
The third promise from Isaiah 40:31 is that God will help us walk – they shall walk and not faint. This deals with the routine in our lives. This routine may not be very exciting to others, but this routine is important to us and to others who depend on us. Just think what would happen if you fainted and couldn’t accomplish something that your family needed you to do one day. I know that as a mother, when my kids were small, if I failed to pick them up on time from school, there could be severe consequences. They could decide to start walking home and maybe get hit by a car when they are crossing the street. They could get into the car of someone they THINK they know and get kidnapped or worse... Imagine how devastating either of those two scenarios would be to any parent! Our routine CAN be boring and tedious at times, but without it, we would just be living too chaotically, not getting anything accomplished and what good would that be to ourselves and our families and others around us who depend on us?
But, God knows the importance of our routine. So, He is right there walking it with us, every minute of every day and He promises to keep us from fainting, so that we can do what we need to do on a daily basis.
But, how can we avail of these promises? The secret is in the very first phrase: “wait upon the Lord.” A big part of waiting upon the Lord is to spend time worshipping Him, reading His Word & talking to Him in prayer. If we would only wait upon the Lord and remain quiet in His presence, we would receive the wisdom and strength that we need to keep going day after day, week after week, year after year. Psalm 27:14 reminds us, “Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.”
And what happens when we wait on the Lord? He renews our strength! That word “renew” actually means “exchange.” So, when we wait upon the Lord, meditating on His Word, talking to Him in prayer, we exchange our weakness for His strength. After all, He has ALL the strength that we will ever need to keep going, so we should make waiting upon the Lord a top priority in our daily lives. After He renews our strength, we shall mount up with wings as eagles! We will run and not be weary! We will walk and not faint!
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