Strength For The Waiting
What God renews in the people who are tired of waiting on Him
But those who wait on 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.Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV)
Observation
Waiting is the part nobody signs up for. We want the answer, the breakthrough, the door to open today, and instead God hands us a delay, and the delay is where so much faith quietly dies. Isaiah writes to people worn out by exactly that, and he does not tell them to try harder. He tells them what waiting on the Lord actually does. They shall renew their strength. The word for renew carries the idea of exchange, of trading in what is spent for what is fresh, the way you would swap a worn-out garment for a new one. This is the secret the impatient never discover: waiting on God is not empty time where your strength drains away. It is the exact place where strength is exchanged, where the tired trade their exhaustion for His endurance. Then Isaiah gives three pictures, and the order is telling. Mount up with wings like eagles, the soaring moment, the high of an obvious breakthrough. Run and not be weary, the pace of an active, demanding stretch. And walk and not faint, the long ordinary road where nothing dramatic happens and you simply have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Notice he ends with walking, not flying, because the hardest faith is not the mountaintop; it is the Tuesday. It is not fainting in the slow, unglamorous middle where the answer still has not come. And all three, the soaring, the running, the walking, flow from the same source: they wait on the Lord. The strength is not in the waiting itself. It is in the One they are waiting on. Read the verse Isaiah wrote just before this one and the contrast lands harder. He says even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. Natural strength, the kind you are most proud of, has a bottom, and you have probably hit it. But those who wait on the Lord draw from a supply that has no bottom, because it is not theirs, it is His. That is the difference between striving and waiting. Striving spends your own limited tank until it runs dry. Waiting hooks you up to a source that never empties.
Application
So change what you are doing while you wait, because waiting on the Lord is not the same as merely waiting for a result. To wait for a result is to sit staring at the door, tapping your foot, letting hope curdle into resentment. To wait on the Lord is active: it is staying near Him, keeping your eyes on His character instead of your calendar, exchanging your strength for His in His presence while the answer is still on the way. Do that today. Instead of asking only when, ask who, and stay close to the God you are waiting on. Fill the waiting with His Word, the way you would refuel, because that is where the exchange happens. And name honestly which of the three you are in. If you are flying, thank Him and do not grow proud. If you are running, pace yourself in Him and do not burn out. And if you are walking, the long tired road where nothing has changed, take heart, because the promise is specifically that you shall walk and not faint. Do not quit in the ordinary middle. The renewal is not withheld until the breakthrough arrives; it is given now, in the waiting, to those who keep their hope on Him. So refuse to let the delay drain you. Trade your weariness in today. Wait on the Lord, not just for the answer, and let Him exchange your empty for His endless, one ordinary faithful step at a time. Guard your mouth while you wait, too, because words either feed hope or bury it. Stop saying nothing is changing, God has forgotten, it will never come. That is the language of people who wait on a calendar, not on the Lord. Say instead what Isaiah gave you: I am waiting on God, my strength is being renewed, I will run and not be weary, I will walk and not faint. And do the next right thing today even though the answer has not arrived, because faith that waits is not passive. Keep serving, keep obeying, keep showing up. The renewal is promised to the ones still walking, so keep walking, and trust that the God you are waiting on is never late.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I am tired of waiting, and I bring You that tiredness honestly. Thank You that waiting on You is not wasted time but the very place where You exchange my spent strength for Yours. So today I choose to wait on You and not merely for the answer. I fix my eyes on who You are instead of watching the calendar. Renew me now, in the middle of the delay, before the door has opened. Where I am soaring, keep me humble; where I am running, keep me steady; and where I am just walking the long ordinary road, hold me up so I do not faint. I set my hope on You and I trust that my strength is being renewed even now, in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen!