MESSAGE: God strengthens us during our time of waiting

As you are waiting on God to strengthen you, remember the words of the prophet Isaiah in Chapter 40, verse 31, “But those who wait on 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 40:31 NKJV).

Life’s waiting room is a place where time seemingly stands still. It is a place where life is put on hold. Sometimes when I visit my doctor, while I sit and wait in his office, it feels like hours have passed, and yet when I look at my watch, it’s been only 20 minutes. When we are in the waiting room of life, it seems as if progress has come to a screeching halt. This is how it feels sometimes while we wait on the Lord.

One of the important exhortations of the Bible is the call to “wait on the Lord.” Even though God promises special blessings for those who wait, waiting is one of the most difficult exhortations of scripture. Why is it so hard? Because, as a part of fallen humanity, we are so prone to take matters into our own hands and to follow our own schemes. Yet, over and over again we are told in scripture to “wait on the Lord.”

We don’t like to wait, and when we think of waiting we are apt to respond with a pun: “Wait? That’s what made the bridge collapse!” Of course, that’s weight, not wait. But then, these two words, weight and wait, are not always unrelated, because one of our needs in waiting on the Lord is the need to cast the weighty burdens of life on Him.

I once heard an illustration about how God strengthens us during times of waiting through trials. It went like this: Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks? The eagle will fly to a high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it. The eagle does not escape the storm; it simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rises on the winds that bring the storm.

When the storms of life come upon us, we can rise above them by setting our minds and our belief toward God. The storms do not have to overcome us; God will strengthen us during our time of waiting. His power will lift us up above the dark clouds so we can ride the winds of the storm that bring sickness, tragedy, failure and disappointment into our lives.

I know because of my recent experience with tragedy. I have had seven deaths in my family this year alone, and through my tragedies, God continues to strengthen me and lift me up above my storms. He will do the same for you, in whatever storm you are dealing with. I just want to encourage everyone who reads this article that God is not asleep and He is not just standing on the sidelines observing. He is in the fight right there with you, lifting you up so you can soar above your storm.

Remember, it is not the burdens of life that weigh us down, it is how we handle them. So wait on the Lord and be of good courage. Wait, I say, on the Lord!

Devotional by Bennie L. Robinson

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