Bible Reading: Isaiah 40: 27-31
Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God"?
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
A Reflection
I think all of us, whatever age we are, grow weary at times, more so now in the dark months of winter, with the changes to our lives brought about by the pandemic: the restrictions, the isolation from friends and loved ones and the uncertainty and fear for the future.
We may feel lost in the vastness of humanity, just one person amongst almost 8 billion on planet earth. We may complain, like Israel, that ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, my cause is disregarded by my God’. If that is how we feel, Isaiah would say to us ‘Do you not know, have you not heard…’
As we look at the final verses of Isaiah 40 we see again the mystery of our Everlasting God who is both the creator of the ends of the earth and yet who also reaches down to us to give strength to the weary.
If you saw ‘Autumn Watch’ on the television recently you will have seen the White-Tailed Eagles, last seen in England in 1790, flying again over the Isle of Wight. With a wingspan of eight feet they ride on the thermal air currents, soaring effortlessly above the world and all its problems. This is the image that Isaiah lays before us as he says, ‘Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles.’
Prayer and worship are God’s thermal air currents that enable us to rise above life’s problems and to see them from God’s perspective, a place from where we find the strength ‘to run and not grow weary, to walk and not faint’.
Can you find a time and place to be quiet before God in prayer, or to listen to a worshipful piece of music that will lift your spirits and help you to soar, in your spirit, on wings like eagles?
A Prayer
Everlasting God, I place my hope in you.
As you reach down to me, enable me to soar with you,
above all that I face today, tomorrow and in the weeks to come.
Amen
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord