Isaiah 40: 29 – 31 (N.I.V.)

“He gives strength to the weary, and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.”

For a long time, I have been troubled by the above verse; I looked around me and find so many people discouraged while doing what is supposed to be God’s work and it is tempting to conclude that that verse is false. The problem is even wider than this; the verse should also extend towards all facets of life; at the work place, in relationships, at school, at prayer, at the word, while fasting, e.t.c. These are all areas that the promised renewal of strength should come. But what I see is that in many of those areas, the only promise that seam to come to pass is that we always will have motivational preachers who would tell us to keep on struggling; that some people made it, why not we?

In any population, some people will always make it. That is not the manifestation of the fulfilment of the promise; that is chance or ability and has little to do with God’s power helping us. It will be very wrong for us to misrepresent God’s power and reduce it to chance and personal strength or endurance; it will give the undertone that God has favourites, which is not true. Until we see a promise come to pass and hold true in an entire group to the extent that all who join the group would most likely experience the promise, we cannot confirm that it is the promise at work; Jesus said, “Let them be united that the world may know that you sent me”,

He also said, “On the day the son of man comes, it shall be as the sun that rises at the east and shines its light to the west”.

I do not think motivational teaching is the answer; I think we should revisit the terms of the promise.

We all know that God’s promises are always on a condition and that the promise will come if we satisfy our side of the condition. What is the condition at question in this verse?

The verse says, “They that hope in the lord….” to wait in old English may mean to serve, it is in this context that we have the word ‘waiter’; i.e. those who serve in restaurants. Thus ‘to wait’ may mean to stand ready for God to tell you what to do; to listen for God’s solution to your problem or listen for what God wants you to do.

The truth is that most of us decide what we want to do for God; we decide we want to sing, we want to preach, we want to act, we want to be this or that for God. Can we then be said to be waiting on God? If a waiter offers me food that I did not order, should I pay for the meal? This is an issue of questioning God’s authority.

Another context of the meaning to the word ‘wait’ is, well, to wait; wait for God.

Most of us are in a hurry, in a hurry to do something about our situation; in a hurry to solve the problem, to get what we want. As a result, we may rush ahead of God’s time and make shipwreck of our testimony. Is. 50: 10 & 11 lets us know that it is God’s policy; if you do not wait for His time and His council, you will definitely make shipwreck of your testimony. This is an issue of questioning God’s wisdom.

Finally, but not least of all, another context of meaning to the word ‘wait’ is to hope in God. After we may have waited to know what God’s time and method to come and be revealed, this is about the time most of us begin to fear; fear what people will say, fear the challenges we have to face, fear the opportunities we would have to forgo, the sacrifices we would have to make, indignities we would have to endure, the abilities we don’t have. We begin to rationalize that it is not possible to do it God’s way and make the desired results. This is an issue of doubting God’s power; the moment we turn to God for help, we make it God’s business. The moment He answers and involves Himself in the affair, it becomes His work. If it fails, He would be at fault because we trusted in His wisdom and power. If for fear of anything we do not do His will, it is because we do not trust is His ability to save us from failure or shame; we do not trust in His salvation.

To illustrate the above point, let us take prayer for example. Many of us still indulge in needlessly long prayers thinking that it is by lengthiness that our prayers will be effective; popular doctrines have even been instituted in the church that back this stance even though Jesus specifically told us not to do this. Some of us pray loud and repetitive prayers so that people may think we are men of prayer, thus we impress men but do not impress God; Jesus specifically teach against this. It is an issue of trying to get God’s results with our own effort; not following His methods. It is also an issue of wanting more than the salvation of God allows for our lives, i.e. pride.

All the points above sited can all be described as “little foxes that spoil the vine”, i.e. little reasons why our faith do not work. If we hope to experience the promise of God, we must purge our hearts of these things as the bible says