To Encourage You

Isaiah 40:31 “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.”

Over the last year, the issue of suffering and death have been front and center in my life.  I’ve lost a brother-in-law and an aunt in the matter of a week.  So far from Covid, I’ve known six people personally who have lost their life.  Recently I’ve become aware of several young people in our local school district who have learned that they have either cancer, diabetes, or other debilitating diseases.  Several young families have very recently lost their fathers and husbands to such things as cancer and tragic accidents.  It’s heart breaking.  My own father has been battling cancer for over 12 years.  And then I read a verse like the one above and ask myself, what on earth does this mean?  Many of the people I’ve just mentioned are Christians. All of them have been “waiting on the Lord” as this verse says, but what did that waiting result in? For many of them it was tragedy and death. So, did God lie to us when He included the verse above in His Word? Was it meant for some but not others?  Am I missing something when I read this?  And then to think that it is believed that Isaiah, the prophet that wrote these words, died for his faith by being sawed in two!  Was Isaiah mistaken?

But then my thoughts turn to Psalm 73.  In this psalm, the psalmist, like you and me, looks around him and sees the righteous suffering and the wicked being blessed.  As he considers this, he says “As for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. . . When I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task.” He’s telling us that it all just didn’t make sense to him, and his faith was being greatly tested because of it. But then his thoughts make a turn as he says that his feet had almost stumbled, “until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.”  He’s talking about the end of both those who have put their faith in God and those who have not.  It is in the sanctuary that his thoughts got reoriented to see things as God sees them.  It’s there that he gets an eternal glimpse from the eternal God, and from that perspective he says this: “I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Notice that his thoughts turn to “glory,” “heaven,” and “forever,” i.e., thoughts about eternity as opposed to his short time here on earth.  You see, when the Lord spoke through Isaiah in the passage above, he was pointing us to eternity, for that’s the main focus of the Scriptures. When Jesus walked on earth He constantly preached about the kingdom of heaven.  It’s where He had come from and it was where He was going.  But while He was here, He suffered just like us.  In all of it His eyes were focused upward.  He knew that the words of Isaiah above were true for Him and they are true for all who would follow Him.  He knew that no matter what happened to Him in this life, no matter that He would suffer and die on the cross, in the future His strength would surely be renewed. He would mount up with wings like an eagle. He would soon run and nevermore become weary. He would soon walk and nevermore be faint. And that’s true for you and me just as well, if we have put our faith in Christ. That’s true for all those who are right now suffering and dying in the Lord.  It’s the hope of which each and every Christian can be certain. It’s the truth no matter how things seem right now. 

So, if you’re suffering today and know Jesus, keep holding on.  What was true for Him is true for you. Remember that He’s told us that “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19).  Do you hear that? YOU will see Him, for He is most certainly alive.  And He lives in a glorious body, just like all who follow Him will soon receive as well. You can read all about it in 1 Corinthians 15. And you can hear a wonderful song written and sung by David Phelps about it at the following link, which he wrote soon after a good friend had succumbed to cancer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM7e9tIyovA