A Christian’s Response to Living in a Teetering World
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Last week, we looked at the historical event involving Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nigo and how God sustained them after they were thrown into the fiery furnace.
Today’s passage is from Isaiah 40… this particular passage was written, prophetically, to speak of the Israelites’ captivity in Babylon.
Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”?
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.
He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power.
Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly,
Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
Sometimes life can be very hard… and anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying, hasn’t lived long enough, or is trying to sell you something.
You don’t have to look very far to see how this world seems to be spinning out of control!
Last week, we had that family destroyed because dad decided to shoot everyone at the scene in Shreveport.
It seems the extreme left is winning on every front politically.
Several states are voting on extreme measures regarding when they can terminate a pregnancy.
The economy is harsh; just buying groceries or filling up your gas tank can cost an enormous amount of money.
Wars are still ongoing in Ukraine and now in Iran.
On average, 13 Christians are martyred every day, and 4,849 were killed last year for their faith, yet no one seems to care or try to stop it.
On top of that, we deal with health issues and deaths in our families.
At these times, it is common to question where God is in all of this.
Does He care?
How long, God, are you going to let bad things happen?
In today's passage, we see the Israelites struggling with these very questions, trying to understand the Why. Why was God allowing all these things in their lives?
Look with me if you will at Isaiah 40:27
Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”?
They felt completely alone, as if God had somehow forgotten them… did He even care about their plight? After all…
They were in captivity.
They saw many of their loved ones die by the sword, some by starvation, and others by other means.
Their best and brightest youth had been taken to Babylon.
Their world had collapsed; there seemed to be no end to their darkness.
All of us have been here… and if you haven’t, live life a little longer, and you will be.
We know, intellectually, we have read our bibles, so we know that God hasn’t left us, but it doesn’t take away the feelings of it.
We just want God to intervene… we want Him to make things better!
We want to know where are you God!
Look at the response in verses 28-31.
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.
When our world is falling apart… it is time to run to God, not from God.
During these times, our feelings cannot be trusted, but the Character of God can be...
Notice the theological terms used here to describe God.
God is eternal – There is no beginning and no end
God is the creator and does not tire – This speaks to His omnipotence. He sustains all things, and His power is limitless.
His understanding is inscrutable – This speaks to God’s omniscience. Nothing escapes His knowledge, and He sees all things, past, present, and future.
This word, inscrutable, means you cannot put Him in a box and figure Him out.
We sometimes think God is going to do xyz, but He does abc… sometimes His ways just don’t seem to add up!
That’s when we need to remind ourselves of the verse in Deut. 29:29a.
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God”
There are things in this life that are secret to God alone…
Sometimes, in time, He reveals the why’s to our questions; other times, He does not…
But we need to understand something very clearly this morning…
It is okay to ask God questions, but we cannot question God.
We can ask questions, desiring that God enlighten us about a situation…
But questioning God is to challenge His authority!
“When the earth quakes and its people live in turmoil, I am the one who keeps its foundations firm.”
Earlier in this chapter, God says this about Himself…
“To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.
Notice how these verses speak to God’s unlimited power, but also to His intimate interaction with His creation.
He has named each star, and not one is missing.
How much more does He love and know you…
We think He doesn’t care, that He has forgotten us, and that our problems and situations are out of His control…
No… our God loves you and knows your situation from the beginning to the end… the way you get through this particular trial in life… God has already been there and knows the way…
This is why, when we go through difficult times, we cannot depend on our feelings about the situation, but we must depend on the character and goodness of our creator and run to Him rather than from Him…
I like what Dr. Tony Evans says on this matter. “A low view of God in a crisis means the crisis will control you and own you, but a high view of God in the crisis means the crisis no longer has the last word! God does!”
You see, we tend to credit God’s goodness only when life is great and there are no issues… we say we are blessed by God in this or that… but understand that God does not change. It is our view of God that needs to change, regardless of our circumstances, whether they be good or bad, famine or feast, rich or poor, life or death…
So the question we must ask during times of trial… is what do we do?
Let’s look at verse 31.
Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
The key to getting through a trial in life is to wait!
Understand this word. Wait is not sitting, letting time pass by…
No, the Hebrew word for wait is to wait with hope! It carries the idea of a rope or a braid…
In other words, our waiting involves wrapping ourselves and our circumstances around our Savior so that the three of us are so tightly bound we form a braided rope… a single strand of rope will easily break, but a braided rope has strength.
It is not just going to Church on Sunday and checking a box… No….
It is taking every moment, every care, every heartache, and wrapping them around Jesus, looking to Him for our strength in a situation.
If we don’t wrap ourselves and our circumstances in God, we leave ourselves vulnerable to our situation and are controlled by it.
Nearly eight years ago, I lost my first wife to a brief battle with cancer.
I did not wait on the Lord.
As a result, I was weak, and my circumstances dictated the decisions I made during a time of trial and loss.
Had I wrapped myself around the Lord and intertwined myself with Him at the time, my situation would not have changed, but the strength to make the right decisions and my immediate outlook on life would have been entirely different.
The Scriptures are full of people who waited…
Noah had to wait for the rain.
Sarah had to wait for her baby.
Joseph had to wait in prison.
David had to wait to become king.
Today, we are waiting for the Lord's return…
How do we wait? We wait in worship!
I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope.
We wait on the Lord… we do this by worshiping Him… when we worship Him, our minds are no longer on our circumstances but on our Savior…
It is in the waiting and the intertwined worship of Him that He brings His plans to fruition and fulfills His ways in our lives.
This doesn’t change our circumstances, but it does change our mindset within them.
Notice the word “New”
As we wait, we “intertwine” ourselves with Him in our waiting… He gives us “New Strength”
How do we experience new strength? We are given three options here in verse 31.
Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
There are three different ways God gives us new strength!
The first is…
“They will mount up with wings like eagles.” God chooses to intervene divinely to take you out of the situation miraculously.
‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.
God miraculously brought the children out of Egypt through multiple miracles, removing them from their circumstances.
Like a mother eagle who swoops down to save her eaglet as it tries to learn to fly, God, in His infinite mercy, sometimes swoops down to take us out of our situation.
The second way God helps us and gives us New Strength.
“They will run and not get tired.” He enables us to keep going in our situation.
David was anointed king as a teenager, but he had to wait 15 years before he actually became king.
God gave him the endurance to keep going, even though his circumstances were dire at times.
It’s like being on a treadmill… if we are on a treadmill and we do not have some form of distraction, then when we begin to get tired, we start to focus on our circumstances.
But when we listen to music or watch a TV show, we can go on because our focus is no longer on our situation but on something else.
God gives us strength to continue in our situation, giving us new strength when our focus and our dependence on waiting are intertwined in Him!
The third way God provides New Strength.
“They will walk and not become weary.” He provides encouragement in our time of need.
When I was in the throws of grief after losing my first wife to cancer, what pulled me out of self-pity and out of just focusing on my circumstances was a conversation with Mary Frances.
She asked me, “Ben, is God a good God, or is He not?”
It allowed me to recalibrate. It forced me to make a decision. While my circumstances did not change, my focus did, and I began to wait on the Lord by intertwining myself and my circumstances around Him!
In all three ways, God provides New strength… but this strength only comes when we wait and “entwine ourselves in Him”
In the crisis of life, the answer is not to do it on our own or to look to the world, but to run to Him!
It is then that we find the strength only He can offer.
I don’t know your situation today, but I do know many of you are going through very difficult times.
I wish I could say that God will miraculously swoop in and save you from your situation, and yes, He does do that at times.
But if He hasn’t, He does offer strength when we run to Him and wait on Him… it is in the waiting that He brings the strength needed, and it is tailor-made just for you.
Will you trust Him today?
Will you place your hope in Him?
Will you allow Him to give you the strength you need?
Let’s pray.
