We Who Wait for the Lord

“Why do you say, O Jacob,

    and speak, O Israel,

‘My way is hidden from the Lord,

    and my right is disregarded by my God’?

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.

He gives power to the faint,

    and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary,

    and young men shall fall exhausted;

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 40:27-31 ESV)

Have you Christian; have you follower of Christ; have you man or woman of God ever felt as though God had forgotten you or that he was not really paying attention to your circumstances? Have you ever felt as though you were abandoned by God and he was so busy elsewhere that he wasn’t really even noticing you and what you were going through? And/or have you ever thought that God could do nothing about what you were experiencing, and that other humans had power over you over which God had no control?

There was a time in my life when I subconsciously believed that God had no power over my circumstances and over other people, and that other humans had power over me that God could do nothing about. Consciously I did not believe that, but my actions proved what I really believed. But I didn’t realize that is what I believed. Even one time when the Lord was encouraging me to get back into a difficult situation and to work it through, my immediate response to the Lord was, “But God, you don’t understand!”

It was what my heart felt and believed and accepted even though my conscious mind was telling me something different. And it all came down to the fact that I had been abused severely by my father, and I had faced other abusive situations in my life, too, and although I did cry out to God in those circumstances, the Lord did not rescue me from them when I was going through them. So my subconscious mind came to believe that God really was powerless to do anything and that man still had power over me.

And that is what this lesson is about and what God was addressing with his people, that they believed that their way was hidden from the Lord, and that their right (their cause) was disregarded by God. For they were those who were bringing the Good News to the people, but evidently they were not being received warmly and with welcome by all the people, for they were being instructed to not be afraid, but to say to the people, “Here is your God!” And they were to lift up their voices with a shout (Isaiah 40:9).

And so the Lord reminded them that he was all powerful, and that God sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and the earth’s inhabitants are like grasshoppers. And he told them of how he stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in. And he brings princes to nothing, and he makes rulers of the earth as emptiness. [We definitely have some empty rulers of the earth.] And he told them that when he blows on these rulers, they wither, and they are carried off (Isaiah 40:21-24).

And that surely is a picture of the sovereignty and the almighty power of God over the earth and over the people of the earth. So, whatever happens, God allows it. It doesn’t mean he approves of it, just like he allows sin and sinners to exist on the earth for a time, but he does not approve of sin. And if God allows something in our lives, he will carry us through it. We just have to trust him, believe him, turn to him, and follow him wherever he leads us in doing and saying and being what he wants. 

So, our God is all powerful and all knowing and he is present everywhere at all times and there is nothing that escapes his notice, and there is nothing that is beyond his ability to act in any given situation. He will not grow faint nor weary, so we can always depend on him to be there for us if we are his followers (his disciples) and if we are following him in walks of obedience to his commands in holy living, and if sin is no longer our practice. And he will give us the strength to endure and to conquer all that comes into our lives.

For those who wait for the Lord are not those who just use God as their genie in the sky there to grant their every request. And if we are those who wait for the Lord, we are those whose trust is in him regardless of our circumstances, that he will see us through everything that comes our way, and that he will give us the strength to endure and the wisdom to know how to respond. We will acknowledge his power over our lives, and we will submit to his will and purposes. And we will trust him to bring good out of it all.

Here is Your God!  

An Original Work / July 18, 2012

Based off Isaiah 40:9-31 NIV

You who bring good tidings to Zion,

Lift up your voice; raise with a shout,

And do not be afraid of the people.

Say, “Here is your God!”

See how the Lord God comes now with power.

His arm rules for Him; His reward with Him.

He tends His flock just like a shepherd,

His lambs in His arms.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? 

Has it not been told you from beginning?

Our Lord sits enthroned above all things.

None to Him compare.

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens.

Who made all of these? Who calls them by name?

Because of His great power and strength,

All accounted for.

Why do you say, “My way is hidden

From the Lord, and my cause forgotten”?

Do you not know? Have you not heard?

The Lord, He is your God.

He will not weary. He gives us power.

Those who trust in Him will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings just like eagles;

Walk and do faint not.

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