Renewed Strength

Isaiah 40:31 “They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar on eagles’ wings; They will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.”

This is a message that I have been receiving a lot lately. The part where is it says they will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint. I feel that God is wanting us to know that he is here for us. He knows what we are going through and if we hope in Him, He will renew our strength. It seems like a lot of people that I know are going through some really difficult things right now and they are definitely feeling weary. God wants us to know that he is with us in our struggle. When we feel weary we can renew our strength by leaning into Him, instead of pulling away.

What do I mean by pulling away? When we are going through a hard time sometimes we get mad at God. We don’t understand what is going on. We know He could fix the situation and we don’t understand why He is not doing anything. There is never a time when God is “not doing anything.” However, if we can’t see what he is doing, or we don’t understand what he is doing then it may seem like he is doing nothing. This can cause us to pull away. This can make it hard for us to pray. Our hope can sometimes diminish because we can’t see a way out of the situation. We can’t see a way for God to use the situation for our good.

This is normal. If you are in this situation right now, please know you are not alone. You are among good company. There were even some Saints that found that they could not find the words to pray sometimes. God understands this. God is not looking for us to have all the answers. He is not looking for us to know exactly what to say to Him, or what to do in each circumstance. He is just looking for us. Yes, that means you too. He just wants you to be with Him in whatever way you can.

He wants you to hope in him even if you don’t know what to hope for. I know that may not make sense, how can you hope if you don’t know what to hope for? I think that just means that you hope in the fact that God has a plan. That even though you have no idea what the plan is, you know He has one. You hope in the promise that God uses all things for your good. That even though you don’t know how it will turn out, it will ultimately be for you good. I know this is not easy, but it is possible.

I am currently in a situation right now that I don’t understand. A very good friend of mine is in a lot of pain in the hospital. She has cancer. I know she is close to the Lord and if it is her time to go then she will be going to Heaven. I also know that she wants to get better. I know God could heal her. It seems to me that if I ask God to heal her, and I trust that He will heal her, that He will in fact heal her. I have read a lot of Bible passages and they all seem to support this theory. Ask and you will receive. Have faith and trust with all your heart and it will be granted. (ok, that last one was a paraphrase) You get what I mean though, right? However, I think this is a trap that the enemy has set up for us to fall into.

This is something that I struggle with, so I am letting the Holy Spirit lead my fingers as I type this and I want to acknowledge the fact that I have not figured this out yet. I am not an expert on this, I am on a journey of discovery and understanding just like you. I have prayed for understanding on this a lot. I know I have talked about this before recently when discussing losing a close friend and my dog. What I am talking about now is my understanding from my prayer time.

The reason I say this is a trap the enemy sets up for us to fall into is because there is so much potential for anger and doubt. If we ask God to heal her, and she dies, we will most likely get angry with God and not understand what is going on. We may stay angry for a long time. We may also start to doubt that there is a God, or that He actually hears our prayers. We may start to doubt ourselves if we read verses like Mark 11:22-23 “Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God. Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him.” It says “does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him.” So if it was not done for you then you may start to question if you could have done something differently. Would things have turned out differently if you had just believed more?

Do you see how all of those things are things that the enemy wants us to feel? He would do anything to try and destroy our relationship with our Heavenly Father. The enemy is the father of lies. I talked about him the other day and how he uses scripture against us sometimes. It is usually not a blatant lie. Do you see how he is not even changing anything about the scripture. He is just using it as a way to try and show you that God doesn’t keep his promises and that God can’t be trusted. This is anything but true and yet the enemy takes advantage of our weakened vulnerable states and plays with our emotions.

So, if it’s not true that God let us down, what is the truth? This is what I was asking God this morning. What came to my mind was that we don’t know the whole story. Only God does. First, if we ask Him to cure or heal someone, and they end up dying, He still cured them as there is no sickness in Heaven. They are no longer in pain and are restored back to perfect health. He did still answer our prayer, just not the way we wanted Him too. Second, we don’t know what is really in the heart of the person. Only God does. For instance, my friend stated that she wanted to go to rehab. This implies that she wanted to get better and go home, as this is the purpose and goal of rehab. She did not just want to go to hospice and just be comfortable. To you and I this would seem like she was not ready to die or that she felt like she wanted more time here. Therefor when I pray, I pray that she is healed here on earth and that she gets to keep on living.

However, only God knows what is truly in her heart. Only He knows why she wanted to go to rehab. Did she choose that because she is scared to die? Did she choose that because she is afraid her children aren’t ready for her to go? Did she choose that because she wanted more time with them? We don’t know what is in her heart, but God knows. We don’t know what His plan is and how He is going to use the outcome of this for everyone’s good. All we know is that right now she is in pain. We know what we want. We know what we think is best. He knows what is really best. He has seen the ending of her story. He wrote the ending of her story. If God chooses that this is the ending of my friend’s story it will not be because I did not believe enough, or trust enough. That is a lie the enemy is telling me. If she dies it is because God has decided it was for her good.

If you are struggling and find yourself in a difficult situation right now, know that God is answering your prayers. The answers may not be what you thought they would be, but they are the best answers. God is not just trying to make you feel better in the moment. He knows the ending of your story and he is working all things for your good. You may not understand what He is doing, but if you can hope in the Lord anyway, he will renew your strength and you will “soar on eagle’s wings.”

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. We ask that you help us to lean into you when times are tough. We ask that you help us to see all you are doing in our situation. We ask that you strengthen us and help us to fly on eagles wings, especially when we feel we can’t go on any longer. Lord, help us to not grow weary. We ask that you help us to understand when we feel like we don’t have any understanding. Lord we ask that you comfort us and help remind us that you will use all things for our good. We love you Lord and we know that you do so much for us. We are so grateful that you always keep your promises. You are so amazing! We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.