Original: August 21, 2007
Hume Lake, CA
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. Isaiah 40:29-31
My mind woke up at around six o’clock this morning (Original: August 21, 2007) but it took it about 20 minutes to convince my body to get up out of this old Hume Lake mattress that has probably accommodated thousands of teens and youth workers over the past forty years. As I swung my legs onto the dusty wood floor. I felt the sting of a pulled hamstring radiating up my leg. Injured running up the hill to “take the fort” in a Paintball war, it served as a painful reminder that at forty-one years old I am not as young as I used to be!
I could still feel a few of the twenty paintball hits from yesterday as my students took special pleasure in killing me after I had been killed! I am a living reminder of something a friend once said, “Overkill is still dead!” The one on my upper (upper) right thigh, four under my elbow along with the two in my chest were their act of love (it is a high school thing) after I was already out. Yesterday was a good and typical day at camp. I am sore, wounded, and tired.
I love my job!
Today’s passage really encouraged my aging body as verse 29 encourages “He gives strength to the weary.” In other words, He increases our spiritual capacity and empowers our natural ability to serve him to our fullest potential. Furthermore, He “increases the power of the weak.” Essentially, God takes our weary and weakened state (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) and supernaturally empowers us with the ability to suck it up and get things done. I define power, on a human level, as the ability to get things done and God promises to increase this in our lives by the power of his grace and mercy.
Verse 30 reminds men that even “youths grow tired and weary.” How much more will He strengthen those who are not so youthful? Those in the second half of life might be thinking, “If youths will get tired can you imagine how bad I am going to feel!”
Thanks for that, God! Rather, thanks for that Adam!
Then I read it.
I read it and it lifted my spirit. Verse 31! A man simply has to “hope in the Lord!” All a man must do is trust in His promises and walk by the faith in the character of God, holding Him (is this even possible) to His Word and promises.
Hope is an expectation of faith. It is the complete trust in the fulfillment of a promise. It is the anticipation of something great, wonderful, and futuristic in our lives.
Hope is the anticipation of a promise fulfilled before it comes to pass. Psalm 25:3-5 gives us a clue about a man’s rock-solid source of hope, “No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse. Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”
(Psalm 25:3-5)
(Psalm 25:3-5)
Who are you leaning on today for your strength?
