“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.”
Isaiah 40:31
The word faint means to be weary, to tire (as if from
wearisome flight). Have you ever been
there? Have you ever been physically exhausted? Have you ever been emotionally weary? There is nothing so draining as emotional
weariness. When you find yourself
physically tired sleep can restore your body; but emotional weariness drains
one to the very soul. Perhaps there is
nothing quite as difficult as getting yourself out of bed when you are
emotional weary.
Have you been there?
Have you ever lost heart? Perhaps it was the news that the
cancer was back – just when it appeared life was getting back to normal. Perhaps a friend that was disloyal and turned
on you in ways you never expected. A
wayward child for whom you pray for day after day; yet you never see any
evidence that God has heard your prayer.
Financial struggles that seem to
never let up can cause discouragement.
Life situations give us plenty of opportunities to become
discouraged. Discouragement is a part of
life. Perhaps the easiest place to encounter
discouragement is in the mundane, day to day situations encountered in life. Walking thru life can cause us to become
weary. John Claypool adequately describes this phrase:
‘walk and not faint’:
“Some people feel the sequence of this Isaiah passage is all
turned around and that the highest form of God’s help ought to be the soaring
of ecstasy. They say it should read, “First
you walk, then you run, and finally you mount up with wings as an eagle.” But I think the writer knew what he was doing
when he set down the promises as he did, for in the dark stretches of life, the
most difficult discipline of all is not that of soaring or even of
running. It consists of “keeping on
keeping on” when events have slowed you to a walk, when it seems that in spite
of everything you are going to crumple under the load and faint away.’ (From the book Tracks of a Fellow Struggler –
How to Handle Grief)
Sometimes it is hard just to get up and do it all over
again. Have you been there? I know I have. How we handle discouragement will determine
if the hard situations in life will derail us or develop us. Discouragement will come. How do we handle these times when we are emotionally
weary?
1. Reacquaint Yourself
with the Savior
If we are saved, we know the Lord as our Savior. We have a relationship with Him. We know He died on the cross to pay for our
sins and we have put our dependence in what He did on Calvary as our only hope
for redemption. We know Christ. However,
sometimes we forget Him in times of discouragement and hardship.
I love what the writer of Hebrews has to say about being weary.
“For consider Him (Christ)… lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” I have written in the margin of my Bible next
to this verse: “Solution to
depression”. When we feel weary and
discouraged that is when we need to reacquaint ourselves with our Savior. He endured so much for us! He was perfect – yet HE became sin for
us. He left Heaven for you. If you were the ONLY person in the world for
whom He needed to die in order to redeem you – He would have endured it all just
to save your soul! That is amazing.
When I see all that the Savior endured for me, I find in His
example strength to walk and not faint.
2. Review God’s Goodness to You
I love the words of the Psalmist: “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see
the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” It’s pretty amazing that the Psalmist made an
affirmative that he WOULD have lost of heart – become completely discouraged - if
he had not seen God’s goodness.
The ‘goodness of the
Lord’ are all the way he has showed His loving kindness to us. So,
the Psalmist said he reviewed all the ways He could see God’s kindness to him
as a person. Our God is a very loving
God – He is so kind to us. In fact in
Psalm 33:5 it says, “the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.” In times of discouragement it is easy to
forget all the ways that we have been blessed by the kindness of our loving
God.
I was challenged years ago after our daughter died to daily
write down all the things for which I was thankful. All the ways God had blessed me. It was imperative that I not forget in the
midst of suffering and grief that my God was still good. Everywhere we look we see the kindness of
God. From the beauty of creation to the
salvation of our souls we are constantly reminded that God loves us and has
been so loving and kind to us.
Sometimes, we just have to look for it – rest assured you will not need
to look far.
3. Be Renewed
If you wanted to find someone who had reason to be
discouraged and depressed in the Bible you would find it in the apostle
Paul. His life was far from easy after
he became a Christian. He was imprisoned,
beaten, betrayed by others (unsaved and saved alike), and yet we see Paul
singing praises to God amidst terrible situations. He gives explains to his readers how he was
able to avoid discouragement during difficult times in his letter to the
Corinthian church.
“For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace
might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our
outward man perish, yet the inward man is
renewed day by day.” II Corinthians 4: 15 (Emphasis mine)
How could Paul say that his inward man was renewed day by
day and what does that mean? The word
renewed means to renovate. The inward
man (Paul’s soul) was being renovated (made over / new) through the various
trials that Paul was facing! The trials
were bringing him further on in his sanctification! This is exciting. The trails you and I encounter in our lives
will cause us to be more Christlike and will prepare us for eternity with Christ. They have a purpose! It’s not the cheap cliché, “Life is hard –
and then you die”. No, the trials in
life will have eternal value when we allow God to use them in our lives.
It is clear in the text that this renewal in Paul’s soul
took place with two different exercises.
* First of all, Paul realized that the hardships in life will end.
For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment…”
II Corinthians 4:17. When difficulties came he reviewed this truth
in his mind – this will not last forever!
In my mind I wonder how many times Paul reminded himself of this
truth. As he was feeling the blows of a
beating did he repeat this fact in his head?
Did his mouth whisper the words, ‘but for a moment’ as his ankles
swelled in the stocks?
*Secondly,when Paul encountered hard
times he choose to focus on eternity.
For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment,
worketh for us a far more exceeding
and eternal eight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are
temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” When we realize that the things of this life
will not last – but what God is doing in our hearts to conform us to Him will
last for eternity we find the strength to walk and not faint.
 |
| Allposters.com |
Are you discouraged right now? I challenge you to spend time reacquainting
yourself with Jesus Christ, look for all the blessings you have in your life
right now; and allow the Spirit of God to conform you to sanctify your through
the trials you encounter.
“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.”
Isaiah 40:31
Thanks for stopping by – I am so glad you did.
Blessings,
~Martie
No comments:
Post a Comment