Flight Plan

The title of this morning's message is Flight Plan.

We will be in Isaiah 40:28-31.

Isaiah, as a prophet of God is speaking directly for God which is the same as God speaking personally to the people.

In chapters 1-39, Isaiah is delivering warnings of judgement.

The nation of Israel was in Babylon, in exile because they continually rebelled against God by worshipping idols.

They had lived under oppression for decades, leading to immense despair and the feeling that God had forgotten them.

After all those years the people were losing hope - 27Jacob, why do you say, and Israel, why do you assert, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my claim is ignored by my God”?

This is where we pick up today’s passage...

Isaiah 40:28–31 CSB

28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never becomes faint or weary; there is no limit to his understanding. 29 He gives strength to the faint and strengthens the powerless. 30 Youths may become faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall, 31 but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint.

We may not be under oppression but how many of us have felt like we had little or no hope or that we had no clue what God was doing or why He was doing it?

If we are honest, we probably all have to some degree. When these feelings start invading our thoughts...

Remember, God is in control.

God is “everlasting”: God was here before our troubles and He will be here long after our troubles pass.

God is the “Creator”: He made it all, it all belongs to Him, therefore He is in charge of everything.

God is “limitless”: We as humans exhaust our strength and resources but God has no limit to His. We cannot wear Him out. God is more “knowledgeable”: God has not forgotten us but sometimes the way He accomplishes His will is outside of our understanding.

We are never stronger than in our weakness.

God doesn’t just possess strength, He gives it to His people.

He matches His infinite resources with our human bankruptcy.

He chooses the exhausted, the desperate to receive His power.

When we walk in our own strength we rail to see the need for God’s. If we do not see the need then we won’t seek Him.

The best thing we can do is acknowledge our need and then allow God to work in and through us.

Depending on your Bible translation, verse 31 says those who 'wait,' 'hope,' or ‘trust' in the Lord will renew their strength. The original Hebrew word used here is qavah, which literally means to twist or braid fibers together to make a strong rope. When we 'wait' on God, we aren't passively doing nothing; we are tightly braiding our weakness into His infinite strength so that our lives become unbreakable.

Think about what you do when you board an airplane. You find your seat, you sit down, and you trust. You don’t run up to the cockpit to check the controls, and you don't look out the window flapping your arms to help the plane fly. You rest your entire weight on the aircraft, hoping and waiting expectantly for it to take you where you need to go. That is what it means to qavah.

When we trust God’s plan, we are trusting a path that is already secured.

Before a plane ever leaves the ground, a pilot files a flight plan. That plan completely calculates the route, accounts for the changing weather, and measures the exact amount of fuel needed to get the passengers home safely.

Church, God has already filed the plan for your life. He knows the storms ahead, He knows the head-winds you are fighting today, and He has already calculated the exact amount of strength you need to make it through. You don’t have to generate the power; you just have to trust the plan. His route guarantees that you will keep moving forward, no matter what the terrain looks like:

He will lift you to SOAR: When the storm on the ground is too dangerous, His plan lifts you above the weather. Like an eagle catching an invisible wind current, you don't have to violently fight the storm in your own power, He gives you supernatural lift and changes your perspective.

He will sustain you to RUN: When the journey calls for high speed, intense energy, and heavy focus, His plan provides the fuel. You don’t have to worry about running on empty or burning out, because His infinite strength keeps your engine running.

He will steady you to WALK: When the journey slows down to a mundane, daily grind, His plan keeps your feet steady. Walking takes the most endurance, it's putting one foot in front of the other on a regular Monday when nothing exciting is happening. God's got you, and He promises you will not faint before you reach the final destination.

So where are you today? Maybe you are trying to handle life on your own power and finding yourself exhausted? Maybe you are already on the right path, but wondering what the next phase looks like? You don't have to figure out the whole journey today. Acknowledge your need for Him, step out of your own strength, and trust God to sustain you. Remember, if you want to soar you must follow the flight plan.