To Encourage You

Isaiah 40:29-31 “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.”

Have you been to any nursing homes lately – or ever for that matter?  I was, just a few days ago, and then I read the verses above this morning.  As I had just so recently looked about the residents at the nursing home, at the wheelchairs, casts on arms and legs, oxygen tubes, and the like, then read the verses above, it is words like “faint,” “no might,” “weary,” and “exhausted” that immediately came to mind.  Yes, a nursing home could be called the epitome of the situation to which the verses above speak.  But how can these verses be true?  How in the world can a Christian sitting in a nursing home with the next big event in life facing them day after day being the end of their life, find any consolation in such words that would seem to be meant to encourage and uplift those who are down and out.  It would seem that such words are nothing more than an empty promise to those who see themselves with no hope – and to us who may be tempted to view their situations in perhaps the same way. 

But the truth is, these verses are absolutely true, and in particular for those in that nursing home.  The words of Isaiah 40 are words of promise to anyone who would “wait upon the Lord.”  It is not a promise for those who have given up on the Lord, who have lost all faith, and have turned their back on the promises of God’s Word.  To such people there are no good promises – only warnings of a future that will only get worse.  But for the believer, one who waits on the Lord, God has promised in no uncertain terms, and in fact, God has staked His very reputation on the truth of statements such as the ones He has given to us in Isaiah 40:29-31. 

You see, a person in a nursing home can often do nothing other than wait. They are enduring difficult circumstances that they perhaps never foresaw as they traveled life’s course. At earlier times in their lives they may have been active, working, full of life, and vibrant with energy.  However, now they find that their strength is sapped, their “running” a distant memory, and their walking, if it is done at all, slow and painful.  So, they wait in conditions they never wished for themselves there in that nursing home.    But God would have the believer in such a condition know with certainty that they will not be in that situation forever.  Some may be able to leave that place someday if their health improves, but in most cases, that is not to be expected.  However, for the believer, there is coming a time when they will meet the Lord whom they’ve been waiting for, and  He will most definitely renew their strength. They will run and never be weary. They will walk and never be faint. 1 Corinthians 15 speaks to the reality that is coming for those who wait with these words: “But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’ You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.  For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.  It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam (i.e., Jesus) became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” And that is exactly what is coming for the one that waits, who endures, who trusts their Savior and His Word until the end. And so we are told, a few verses later in 1 Corinthians 15, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” 

So, what about you? Are you in a situation where your strength is sapped, perhaps not as sapped as for those in the nursing home, but not much better in your mind?  Are you in a situation in which all you can do is wait, for you don’t have the strength, or wisdom, or resources to do anything else?  Well, you can be sure that if that is all you can do, if all you can do is wait, there are promises to you if your wait is on the Lord, for He will strengthen you, in His time, for that is the absolutely true Word of the Living God.  He gives strength and increases power, even if that means strength and power to endure that wait, until His promise is ultimately fulfilled in ways that will go far beyond anything we can even imagine.