God Promises New Strength
Do you need strength for anything today?
Verse of the Day
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31
Today’s Devotional
Those who hope. Those who wait. These are the people who trust God. And from our trust, God promises new strength.
I normally read this verse and focus on the renewal and strength. I never really focus on the trusting, hoping and waiting part. That’s like focusing on my much-hoped-for lean and strong physique without focusing on the nutrition, exercise and sacrifice. We get the renewal FROM the trusting. It’s another example of a conditional promise.
There’s a couple of things that jump out to me. First, there is concept called “active waiting” that I believe applies to this verse. We have all prayed prayers that cannot be answered quickly. Some answers can take years. (Our children accepting Jesus as their Savior, for example.) So between when I begin to pray for something and when the answer comes…what am I doing? There are a few ways I can think of to actively wait, which is how I can practice trusting:
- Continue to grow in my relationship with God.
- Live out my purpose of loving God and loving others.
- Praise God in the waiting.
- Ask God what lessons He needs me to learn in the waiting.
- Find many things to be grateful for.
- Find ways to be useful to those around me.
- Choose to know that God’s timing is perfect.
- Remind myself of God’s faithfulness.
- Continue to ask for answers.
- Actively refuse to be discouraged, circling back to praise, gratitude and God’s faithfulness.
- Study the people in the Bible who had to wait. (Abraham comes to mind.)
I’m sure there are many more things we can do during the waiting. Then, when the answers to our prayers come, knowing it won’t look the way we planned, our faith will grow.
Next, there is the order of this verse. Soar, then run, then walk. That seems backwards, doesn’t it? I read a commentary that described this in a really cool way. As we trust, we begin to soar above our circumstances. Like an eagle, when we trust God, our heart and mind stay high above the dangers of the world. The dangers (and the troubling circumstances) are still happening to us and around us, but we are unaffected. Once we are soaring above our circumstances, we can effectively run the race set before us. We can actively pursue our life’s work in a way that honors God. Then, as we are living out our purpose, we are finally walking the walk of our faith. We are walking hand in hand with God on this earth. Doesn’t that sound amazing? And it all comes from trusting, waiting on and hoping in God.
The trust is required for the gift of new strength. I could use a pretty big measure of new strength today. So I need to do my part. I need to be using my trust muscles.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
What are you waiting on?
What are you hoping for?
What answers have yet to come?
How can you actively wait?
How can you practice soaring above your circumstances and running the race God has set before you?
How can you practice actively trusting God today?
Ask Him to show you where you need to trust Him more.