Run and Not Grow Weary
Even youths shall faint and be weary,and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORDshall 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 40:30-31
When growing up, I often saw this sign on the wall of the little café in my hometown: “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get!” As I grew up, this sentiment became crystal clear–with so much to attend to in life, so many details, concerns, responsibilities, necessities, and tasks.
We grow weary, get discouraged, run out of steam. Isaiah 40:30-31 doesn’t promise you’ll never get weary, but rather that “those who wait on the Lord will gain new strength. . . .they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary” (40:31) They are renewed by God, who “does not become weary or tired” (40:28). He gives strength to the weary! (40:29).
A perfect example of this is found in the Gospel of John, chapter 4. Jesus and His disciples came to Jacob’s well in Sychar, a city in Samaria (4:5), and “Jesus . . . being wearied from His journey” sat by the well in the heat of the day (4:6). His exchange with the woman both convicted and excited her, so much that she ran off, forgetting her water pot and purpose for going to the well that she might go bring people to come meet Him whom she discovered to be the Christ (4:28-30). Jesus came to the well because He was weary. Yet when the disciples came back with food, He said, “I have food to eat that you do not know about . . . My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work” (4:32, 34). That food, those “fields…white for harvest” (4:35), were even then walking out to meet Him from the city (4:39)! His weariness was gone.
So it is even today. Many times, I’ve been weary yet went to worship anyway, or thought it best to go visit that person or pursue that opportunity to teach someone anyway. And every time I’ve put Jesus and His cause first (Matt. 6:33), the experience renewed me. Don’t look for excuses to be tired! Rather, claim the promise of renewed strength from God!
- Jeff Lovitt, Morganton church of Christ