To Encourage You

Isaiah 40:31 “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.”

How one views the future has everything to do with how they will face today.  If we are worried about tomorrow, it will certainly steal our joy today.  If we are uncertain and anxious about our future health, our finances, or our children, it will affect our attitude leading into that future. 

Anxiety is an exhausting thing. Depression, that foreboding emotion that sees nothing good on the horizon, robs our energy. Indeed, I’m sure you’ve heard of those who are so depressed they struggle to even get out of bed.  They live life “waiting for the other shoe to drop,” so to speak, for no matter how bad things are at this moment, the worry is that it will soon get worse.

What a contrast with how the Lord would have His people to live.  As a believer peers into the future, what should he or she anticipate?  What should they expect?  In the verse above we are told the answer. The believer is to always and only anticipate the Lord to show up.  As the psalmist said in these wonderful words: “In the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly” (Psalm 5:3).  You see, the believer, no matter what his or her circumstances in life, is to believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord is with them.  The believer is to have the attitude that “The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep (our) going out and (our) coming in from this time forth and forevermore” (Psalm 121:7-8).  And why should a Christian believe this? Because it is true. 

You see, the believer is to look into the future and see God’s hand at work. He is to wait, i.e., have a future expectation, for the Lord to show up and somehow in some way, wonderfully step into his or her life.  Though trouble may well be right around the next bend, the believer has been told that the Lord is there already.  Nothing surprises Him. All things that come into our lives, as we trust in our sovereign God, “work together for good” (Romans 8:28).  It is with this attitude we are to wait for Him.  No matter how things look at the moment, the end will be better than the beginning, always, for the believer. 

We are told about that Old Testament suffering saint Job, that “the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning” (Job 42:12), and that’s the way it will be for each and every believer, for the latter days for every believer will certainly include Heaven.  You see, we trust in the One who is “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13). Our Lord alone, already was in the beginning of time. He created time, for His being supersedes it.  And He alone knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).  And what has He told us? He has told us to wait on Him.  As we look to the future, we are to trust our God, Who, as He looks into the future with us says this: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). 

But what if I get sick and die? What if tragedy awaits me?  Isn’t it only natural to worry about that, because one thing is certain: everyone will die?  To that the Bible assures every believer that they should have the attitude of the apostle Paul. And what was his attitude?  Listen to his confidence as he waits on his Lord: “It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Philippians 1:20-23).

May God help us to trust His Word, and wait on Him with expectation, for those who wait on him will renew their strength – which is the absolute Truth, for the One who cannot lie, has said it.