Strength for the Waiting Season

Most of us do not enjoy waiting. We wait for test results, for a job offer, for a prodigal child to come home, for a prayer that seems to hang in the air unanswered. In a world that rewards speed, waiting can feel like failure, as if life has been put on hold while everyone else moves forward.

Isaiah spoke to a people who knew that feeling well. They were tired, displaced and wondering whether God had forgotten them. His answer was not a promise that the waiting would end tomorrow. It was a promise about what God would do in them while they waited.

Waiting is not empty time

The word Isaiah uses for waiting carries the picture of a cord being twisted together. To wait upon the Lord is not to sit idle; it is to bind our hearts to Him, strand by strand, through prayer, Scripture and quiet trust. The waiting room becomes a meeting place.

They shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

Notice the order in the verse: soaring, then running, then walking. We might expect the list to build toward something more impressive, but it moves toward the ordinary. God gives strength not only for the dramatic moments of faith, but for the long, plain stretches of everyday obedience. Sometimes the greatest miracle is simply being able to keep walking.

Strength that is renewed, not manufactured

We often try to get through hard seasons by pushing harder. Isaiah points us to a different source. Renewed strength is received, not produced. It comes as we turn again and again to the One who "fainteth not, neither is weary" (Isaiah 40:28).

If you are in a waiting season today, you are not forgotten and you are not behind. Bring your weariness honestly to God. Let this be the day you stop measuring your worth by how quickly things change, and start receiving the strength He gives for the next step.