So how many times have we read that verse from Isaiah 40:31? "Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will rise up on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint". I mean really? How many times have we quoted it to each other? How many times have we prayed it? But still we may not feel our strength being renewed. Instead, we may feel weary, anxious, depressed, alone but we rarely feel a new kind of strength within us. Do you ever hear things like this and wonder, "Well, then why don't I feel stronger"? Sometimes with passages like this we have heard a million times I think we can start to pick and choose what we see or hear. We can make it out to be something it is not. It is the difference between two strange words: Isogesis and Exogesis. Isogesis is defined out of reading "into" the scripture. Exogesis is defined by reading "out of" the scripture. And what if there is treasure there to see if we dig a little deeper? We need to try to pull out the meaning and not read into it what we wish that it said. This passage doesn't say we will all feel strong all the time. It doesn't say we will have renewed strength in every circumstance. It is not a free pass to ask God (like a genie in a bottle) to give us strength. It is a promise from him but it is conditional (as are many of his promises). The passage actually says, "Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength". The ASV changes the word wait to "hope in the Lord". Maybe we are overwhelmed because we want God's strength but we don't want to wait on his will? Maybe we desire his peace but we don't want to hope in him while remaining under tough circumstances. We will become drained when we are putting our hope in "things to change" and not in "hoping in the Lord". It seems it is and may always be a pattern of God's will to keep me under difficult circumstances for long amounts of time. Maybe God knows I need the practice at putting my hope in him. I so quickly want to get out of a bad situation or ask God to miraculously fix it. But it is part of our sanctification to "remain under" our trials as they produce perseverance in us. I was just doing the butterfly stroke this morning at swim practice. The coach told us we would focus on it today, which many of us thought meant he would talk and we wouldn't have to swim much. But instead, he kept sending us back and forth doing the same drills....over, and over and over until it was ingrained in us to do it without thinking. "Go again" he would say. We would come up panting, out of breath and begging for mercy. "Good job! Do it again," he repeated. By the end, I had little left to give but I knew I had the tools to improve my stroke. It was boring, it was not fun and I sometimes questioned what good it was doing. But it made me better! Jesus is making us better! He wants to conform us to his own character and prepare us to stand before the Father "without fault and with great joy" (Jd. 1:24). How he accomplishes that is up to him but it may often mean teaching us to stay in circumstances we would rather that he remove. If we really want our strength renewed like the eagles than we must put our hope and full trust in Him daily. And what a difference it makes friends! Try it. Go ahead, get in your Bibles and ask God to help you wait on him and hope in him alone. He will not dissappoint.
