For the week of: Monday, May 25th 2009

"Fresh Out of Stregnth"

Someone needs the reminder today, I’m sure of it. 

I often see it in the eyes of the women in the pews at a day devoted to looking into the Word and getting a word of encouragement.  I’ve heard it in the shared pain of so many dear ones at retreats, conferences, Bible classes and in intimate conversations…

…my 13 year old child has been diagnosed with cancer

…my husband wants a divorce; I had no idea; we’ve been married 23 years

…I don’t care about my marriage anymore

…the cancer has spread, just when we were so hopeful

…my son is marrying an atheist

…my grandson is in rehab

…my addiction to pain meds is getting worse and I’m afraid

…my father is dying

…my child was arrested for drunk driving

…my husband refuses to be the provider for our family

…my son has been called back into active service with the military

…my son just called, he was arrested for drug possession

…my husband looks at me with empty eyes

…my mother has Alzheimer’s

…our church is dying

…my temptations are engulfing me

There’s no fight left.  Hope has dissolved with the breath of prayers yet unanswered. 

Oh dear ones, this is a familiar place.  We could grab a cup of tea and share some heartache moments and the buckets of tears that go with them.  I want you to know that so you don’t read this next part thinking it’s just an attempt to fill a page with words that sound convincing.  My name could go beside some of these circumstances.

For this moment, may I invite you beside me to look into words of healing, words that will give strength in the place of your weariness.

Find Isaiah 40.  The prophet Isaiah is writing to God’s people and he has taken the first 39 chapters to tell them of their impending exile by the Babylons because of their consistent and blatant disobedience toward God.

Beginning with chapter 40, however, he tells them that the exile is not the end of life for them, nor the end of hope for their future.  He begins the chapter saying, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”

Dear one, listen carefully.  There sure may be an exile of sorts happening in your life or the lives of someone you love and you may have been blindsided by it all.  I am so sorry.  I truly am and I would cradle you in my arms and rock you gently and hold you and listen to you and cry with you if I could get to you.

On the other hand, may I gently remind us both that sometimes we are the spittin’ image of the Israelites – lifting God up as the Holy One one minute and the next lifting our own selfish desires above His Holy head and de-throning Him as we scoot our own selves into the regal chair.  And that requires repentance, confession and accountability, my friend.

But would you look at how the prophet Isaiah begins his words in this section…”Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”  Oh He wants you to know He can bring comfort to your pain, comfort to your feelings of hopelessness, comfort to your weariness.

Read with me beginning in verse 10:

              “See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and his arm rules for him.

vs 11       He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them  close to his heart.”

Then read with an attempt to paint pictures of the words that follow beginning in verse 12.  God

begins to describe Himself!   

              “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,

              or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?

              Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?”

Don’t stop now, allow yourself to “see” the Great I AM.

vs 21       “Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  Has it not been told you from the beginning?  Have you not understood since the earth was founded? 

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. 

He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

vs 25       “To whom will you compare me?  Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. 

              Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?  He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name.  Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

vs 27       Why do you say, “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.

vs 29       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.”

Oh goodness, dear ones.  I memorized these last few verses years ago, always thought they

were some beautiful words with a wonderful sentiment.  Plaques and pictures with these words

underneath photos of majestic eagles are on the walls of any decent Bible bookstore but I had

never really looked at these verses in the context of the entire chapter.

The God of all creation is not trying to build His ego by pointing out the incredulous abilities He

has beginning in verse 12.  He can measure the waters of the world in the hollow part of His Holy

hand.  He can plop the mountains up on a scale and measure them.  His throne is located above

the earth.  He stretches out the heavens like we would a canopy over a picnic table. He named

the stars and hasn’t lost a one, thank you very much, even though they go on and on for light

years.

No, no, He’s not looking for applause or accolades, my friend.  He’s just telling you and me what

we have available to us when we need “comfort, comfort”.

Weary one, if He hasn’t lost track of one single star and can even introduce them by name, what makes us think He’s forgotten about us, the ones made in His image?  Why do we say, “My cause is disregarded by my God?”

The entire chapter is telling us of the greatness of our God so that when we look at the verse that says (verse 31), “those who hope in the LORD will RENEW their strength”, and we learn that the word “RENEW” literally means “EXCHANGE”, we’ll read it as…

“Those who hope in the LORD will EXCHANGE their strength.”

In the entire chapter, He has been intensely driving home facts about the awesome strength He has because in verse 31 He offers to EXCHANGE what’s left of ours for all of His.

He wants you to know He hasn’t just offered you an eternal home (as though that’s anything to scoff about).  He spent verse after verse telling you about His strength so you would be knocked-to-your-knees amazed and then just as quickly “comforted, comforted” by the knowledge that all of His strength He will gladly exchange for what little you have now, here.

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