Waiting Upon God - Part 5

Part 5 of Waiting Upon God from Broken Bread by John Write Follette.

"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 40:31, ESV).

Isaiah 40:31 says those who learn to wait on the Lord, will receive the resulting four blessings. The first blessing is that their strength shall be renewed. The phrase 'renew their strength" means to 'change strength'. It is an exchange of our self strength for the Lord's strength. This is the result of waiting on God. 

So often we don't wait. We come to God in our own way, maybe with passion and sincerity, but still in our own way. The results are no exchange of strength. We think God doesn't answer our prayers or that He doesn't care. We think if He really cared, He would intervene in our situation, but He already has intervened. He sent His Son, His Word, and His Spirit. He made a way for us to come and wait upon Him. I've learned that supernatural strength will change things. It changes our perspective and our thinking. We begin to see a way forward where there seemed to be no way before. We see the mountains made low before us and the valleys rise to meet us. Just like those in the upper room were clothed or endued with the Holy Spirit's power so we are clothed with God's strength when we wait on Him. We cast off the old self and put on the new man through Christ Jesus. 

 Follette makes a great point that this exchange needs to happen again and again. What strength we had for yesterday's challenges has been outgrown and we need to put on new strength for today. This is a critical point because I think we like to come to God, get the strength we need, and then go use it up until we're running on empty. That's not what God intended. He created us to live in His presence, to fellowship with Him daily. His strength should come to us like a river flowing in with strength and out to a world desperate for spiritual transformation. Waiting on the Lord needs to be a way of life for the believer.

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