A Word in Season: Strength for the Weary (Isaiah 40:31)

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Isaiah 40 is a chapter full of comfort for God's people. That's its opening note, and then the course of the chapter describes and declares something of the majesty of God, his nature, his insights, his understanding, his knowledge, his power, his goodness, his mercy, his trueness and realness, as opposed to the idols of the nations.

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And then toward the end of the chapter, Isaiah then asks the question that follows on from this revelation of God.

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"'Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? "'My way is hidden from the Lord, "'and my just claim is passed over by my

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God.'" Isaiah is incredulous. Why would you? How could you conclude that God doesn't care about you, has no regard for you, doesn't understand what you're going through, is careless with regard to justice and righteousness, is going to abandon you, walk away from you, leave you to your own devices?

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Isaiah drives home the things that he has just made known to them. "'Have you not known?

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"'Have you not heard? "'The everlasting God, the Lord, "'the creator of the ends of the earth, "'neither faints nor is weary.

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"'His understanding is unsearchable. "'He gives power to the weak "'and to those who have no might. "'He increases strength.

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"'Even the youth shall faint and be weary, "'and the young men shall utterly fall. "'But those who wait on the

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Lord "'shall renew their strength. "'They shall mount up with wings like eagles. "'They shall run and not be weary.

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"'They shall walk and not faint.'" Those comforts, those heavenly realities, those divine truths are still the comforts that our souls will need and rely upon, especially in difficult days.

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We probably all understand something of what it is to become weary. It may be particular seasons in life.

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It may be that as you get older, you feel weariness creeping in. It may be there are particular trials that you go through and you're battered down and you feel that mind and body, you're just exhausted.

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It may be the Monday morning for a preacher. It may be what they sometimes call the midweek dip for those who are working the

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Monday to Friday or whatever the system may be where you are. Maybe a certain time of year where particular memories perhaps come back and they afflict you, or even days of winter and darkness can drag you down.

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It may be spiritual seasons of trouble where your soul is weighed down, where your mind becomes dark, where you struggle to see the truth of things.

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It may be that there are then any number of reasons why either because of what is within us or what comes in from without us, we are struggling with this sense that perhaps

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God doesn't know, God doesn't care. We feel wearied, we feel burdened. We're not quite sure where we are and we're not quite sure where we're going.

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Haven't we known? Haven't we heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary.

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Why is that a comfort to us? Because he is the one who supplies strength to those who are weak.

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Isaiah makes the point that even those who seem most vigorous and vibrant, vital in their existence, even those who should be, the young men and the youth, those who seem to have boundless energy, even they shall faint and be weary.

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They shall utterly fall. There is no human strength that can sustain us through all the trials of life.

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But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. God will go on supplying strength to them.

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It's not just that they've learned how to pick themselves up and keep going. It's that God keeps supplying to them what they themselves lack.

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They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.

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Our comfort then lies not in our own resilience, not in our own strength, not in our own wisdom, but in the fact that the

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God who sees and knows all things, a God of justice and mercy, a

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God of righteousness and peace, a God of truth and of goodness, that that God takes account of the demands upon his people, and he is well able to lift up our bodies and our souls and sustain us in our path that we may go on, not just enduring, but even prospering and serve him through all our days.