Walk Run Fly

Are you going through a weary season right now? Do you know what I mean by that? A season where there is so much to do, so many additions to your to-do lists that you can’t cross one thing off without adding 3 more, so much work and so little sleep, you go to bed so late and wake up so early that you actually pass yourself in the hallway!

Maybe you have little ones, a newborn, toddlers, and lack of sleep and endless mental strain at the demands of child training is wearing you down, or maybe it’s teenagers, or maybe, it’s just plain hard physical labour day after day that never seems to end, but you can’t stop as you need to keep going just to pay the bills and stay on top so that you can pay the tax man once again.

When you fall into bed at night, you’re exhausted, physically, emotionally and mentally. You enjoy your much needed rest, only to get up and do it all again the next day.

Maybe you’ve had days like this, or months or even years. Being caught up in a weary season right now, I began to think about Isaiah 40. I love the comfort that the Word of God brings to a weary soul.

Isaiah 40:28-31

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

What I love about this passage, is that although we grow weary and we find ourselves fainting, God never tires. He never faints. He is never weary. The great thing about this is that God is always awake, alert, strong and ready to lift us up.

There is a lot going on in Isaiah chapter 40, we have the gospel, the coming of Christ, the comfort he brings and his sovereignty, but the main theme, as I see it, is God’s greatness and his goodness to his people.

Verse 31 speaks of God’s inexhaustible strength and power. We have to remember who it is that gives us the ability to soldier on, through the weary and long days. It is only through God’s power that we are victorious. We are not able to make it through the weary seasons in our lives without the Lord’s help.

We are told that if we wait on the Lord, if we eagerly and patiently wait and trust and hope, God will renew our strength. He will recharge us and replenish and restore us once again. But we have to wait on him.

When we try and run ahead of God, we just exhaust ourselves and wear ourselves out. We set ourselves up for failure. We have to work on his time schedule, and we have to trust in him, faithfully and patiently waiting on him to give us the power to run and not grow weary and walk and not faint.

Tiredness is a part of life, and although the Bible tells us that God never tires, we read that the Lord Jesus in his human form became weary and had to stop and rest and refresh himself with food and water.

John 4:6 - Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.

Being weary is a physical sign that we are in need of refreshment, whether physically, mentally or spiritually.

We can’t always control the busy seasons in our lives, as things have to be done and time marches on swiftly, but what we can control is the choice to wait on the Lord and lean on him, seeking refreshment from him.

It’s easy to get caught up in reaching for other things to comfort us when we are tired. Maybe it’s scrolling through social media as a distraction, or binge watching a television series, or maybe it’s comfort eating. There are many things out there that promise satisfaction, only to leave us feeling like we’ve been eating dry Weetbix and we’re left thirsty and parched.

The only one who can give us the power we need, is Christ. Yes, we need food and water, even the Lord Jesus at times was hungry, but we need what I like to call, soul food. We need the water of God’s Word pouring into our hearts and minds, soaking into the dry and parched places in our lives. We need his updrafts of air, lifting us up as eagles and causing us to rise to new heights that we never thought were possible to reach. The eagle doesn’t run from the storm, it uses the storm to lift itself higher. Think about that for a minute.

Although you may be tired and the days are long, take comfort in knowing, that even if the weary season goes on for a lot longer than you planned, God is there ready to give you strength.

Isaiah 40:29 - He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

I experienced this very powerfully in my own life just yesterday. It has been a very busy few weeks and I had thought that I was to have a day off of sorts, as I had finished delivering all the freight that had come in. I was working on my to-do list and mentally formulating my day’s plan, when before I even rose from my bed to start on my day off, 13 pallets of freight came in and my plans were suddenly thrown into chaos.

Now, I don’t tell you what happened to boast, because I want God to get all the glory for his empowering work.

As I realised I had to throw out all my plans and embrace God’s plans for the day, I thanked the Lord and praised him for choosing to order my day the way he saw fit, as I knew that he saw the bigger picture and would have a purpose in it all.

I jumped out of bed, after hastily reading my Bible, and began my day, worship music playing out of my little, somewhat tinny sounding Bluetooth speaker sitting on the dash. I raced around madly all day in my trusty ute, with the wind in my hair and the sweat on my face.

And as the day progressed and my mood stayed upbeat, I marvelled at how God could keep my strength going and my cup overflowing with joyfulness. It had to be him. It definitely wasn’t me. I couldn’t have made it through that day with a song on my heart and a spring in my step without his power enabling me. He gave me power to walk, run and fly. Literally, at times.

And once again, only today, my plans have been thrown out the window and so I sit here writing, as God has given me time and space to sit and study and learn from him.

What an amazing and awesome God!

When you find yourself in a weary season, don’t be continually reaching for those creature comforts, reach for God. Yes, go ahead and eat that chocolate and catch up on your social media feed and reconnect with friends, but don’t neglect the one that can feed your soul and refresh and replenish you.

Wait on him. Trust in him. Rest in him.

Remind yourself of who God is and what he is capable of.

With his strength and his power you can:

 

Walk.   Run.   Fly.