28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 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. (Isaiah 40:28-31, ESV)
When I was a young man, I had a keen interest in airplanes and flying. I would build model airplanes, gaze at the sky when they flew overhead, and dream of what it would be like to soar above the earth. Associated with this vision of soaring above the earth was a sense of peace and freedom that was much different than anyone would experience on earth. Here Isaiah gives us a picture of this peace, presented in the flight of the eagle. It is a picture of soaring above the frailties and struggles of life.
How often do we feel weak and feeble? As I grow older, certain parts of my body show the signs of wear. Now I wear corrective lenses when I once had better than 20/20 vision. Today I experience the occasional joint pain. Yes, the hair has fallen, the hearing is impaired, and the wrinkles have arrived. Yet Isaiah stated that, “even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted.”
Moreover, the stresses of life’s trials seem unrelenting. Some years ago, my sister-in-law died from cancer. I watched as my brother and his children dealt with the long ordeal of her battle with the disease. We drove for seven hours, an emergency trip, to be at the memorial service on the day after Christmas. On the way back, we ended up in the middle of the first winter storm of the year, which turned an eight-hour journey into a treacherous two-day adventure. The trip and stress of the journey literally wore me out. The ordeal drained me physically and emotionally.
Yet Isaiah gave us of a way to soar above our frailty and weariness. It is the way of faith. In verse 31 he stated,
“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.”
He did not say that our bodies will become younger. He does not say that our trials would flee away. What he did say is that we will overcome these difficulties as we walk by faith. The Lord gives ordinary weak people like you and me extraordinary stamina in our times of need. You see, we can find strength because He is strong.
I will often look to this verse in Isaiah when I am feeling stressed and weak. I will look to this verse when I hit trials that are completely out of my control. Then I spend some time with the Lord in prayer, casting my “anxieties on him, because he cares for” me (1 Peter 5:7). Then when I close my eyes in prayer, I sense that I am soaring high above the situation like an eagle. Then I can experience strength, freedom, and peace in the midst of the struggle.
Renewing the Heart 