Wait Until You Get Strength!
Notes
Transcript
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. – Wait Until You Get Strength!
As each day slips silently into the graveyard of history, we are grown closer to the reality of our diminished capacity. Time tries our soul. Time tries our faith. Time tries our love. Time tries our family. And time tries our faithfulness?
But if the cross is kept in view, if heaven is on your mind - we can wait on the Lord!
So, whether you get the answer you prayed for, or the answer you dreaded - God is still God, His grace will pull us through and in the pulling through he will give you strength. Isaiah 26:4 Trust in the LORD forever, For in YAH, the LORD, is everlasting strength.
We desire microwavable patience and tribulation. We want instant coffee, instant oats, instant rice, instant experience with the holy! We demand immediate results, now!
God’s waiting has renewal power, revival power, if we use the waiting to come closer to God and his Word, we too can be renewed and revived. It causes a transformation in your life; you actually “glow up” to the point of disbelief at the incredible transformation that has taken place in your life. Somebody say, Wait Until You Get Strength!
Waiting is preparational. It’s a time of getting ready. Ready for what you may ask? Ready for anything!
You are training your faith to be strong, your mind to be stable, your heart to be sensitive to the Spirit as you wait. In your waiting on the Lord, you renew yourself and tank up. So, Wait Until You Get Strength!
The verse before us has been a favorite of the Lord’s people for thousands of years. The context begins at verse 28 and all of these verses are a blessing because they speak to us about who God is and about what He does for His people.
First, we read about the Names for God in 28a:
1. Everlasting God - This is the Hebrew word “Olam” that identifies God as the “eternal God” with divine existence and never ending to be. There has never been a time when God wasn’t, and there will never be a time when God isn’t. He existed when there was nothing but Him, and He will exist when everything else is gone.
2. Lord - This is the name “Yahweh” or as we often say, “Jehovah” This name identifies the Lord as “the Self-Existent One.” Every other being in the universe depends upon some other being for its existence. God depends upon no one. He exists within Himself, by Himself and for Himself. This Hebrew name “Jehovah” is often used as a compound name. These combinations were an effort to express the fullness of God’s being and character; they reveal so much about Who God is.
Jehovah-Rohi – The LORD my Shepherd
Jehovah-Jireh – The LORD my Provider
Jehovah-Shalom – The LORD my Peace
Jehovah-Raphi – The LORD my Healer
Jehovah-Tsidkenu – The LORD my Righteousness
Jehovah-Shammah – The LORD is There
Jehovah-Nissi – The LORD our Banner
Jehovah-M’Kaddesh – The LORD my Sanctifier
Jehovah-El Elyon – The LORD Most High
The Lord is the Self-Existent One. Nobody can compare to the Lord!
3. Creator - This name identifies Him as the One Who made everything out of nothing. The God Who has the power to create worlds with just His Word. God created the green grass, the tall giraffe, the fast cheetah, the growling bear, the biting snake, the smelly skunk, the sour lemon, the sweet mango, the wet water, the hot fire. He is the Creator. He took dirt, made man took man made woman took man and woman and made every other Human. This is the God Who takes our part through all the troublesome ways of life. This is the God we serve! This is our Father! This is God the Creator.
But not only do we see the names of God - Verses 28b-29 we see the Nature of God:
1. He does not faint– fatigue flees from God, despite the fact that He is “upholding all things by the word of his power,” Heb. 1:3.
2. He does not grow weary– Tiredness trembles at God’s labor. We do not have to worry about our Lord ever reaching the end of His strength. “He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand,”Psa. 121:3-5.
3. He possesses all knowledge - What He knows is limited only by His Own limitations, which are limitless. His knowledge is beyond our human comprehension. “But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.” Luke 12:6-7.
And finally:
4. He shares His power - when we get depleted and that is often, he shares His power with us. We are empowered to do what we do because of His power.
Verse 30 continues and reminds us that even the strongest of humans is prone to faintness and failure. We all have the potential to experience times of physical, emotional, and spiritual weakness. Regardless of how well you may have handled situations in the past, there is always the possibility that you will grow weak under the various loads of life you are called on to endure.
However, verse 31a assures us that they that “wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.”The word “wait” means to endure through stretching. The word “renew” means “to restore to freshness.” While you are waiting, you are being stretched and you must endure the stretching so that the fresh you can emerge.
King T'Challa, in the movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, wears a suit made of Vibranium. It stores all the pain and suffering and beatings and battering and hatred and hostility and mocking and misery. It takes all the things that were meant for suffering and uses it for strength. And as I watched the movie a few times, I could not help but think about Jesus. Who endured so much for us. But is all of his endure, he was about to come up as a fresh Savior for the world. Isaiah 6 puts it this way, “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Somebody ought tell your neighbor, you have Wait Until You Get Strength!
Jesus soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. But He understood, He had to wait three and a half long years. Enduring the ridicule, mocking, rejection for our sins. After He waited on the Lord, He got on up, went on and died on the cross. But the story doesn’t end there. He was buried in the grave and had to wait some more. You may get through one waiting period, but there are surely more to come. But Wait Until You Get Strength. My Bible tells me that He waited there for three days. But early Sunday morning, He rose with all power. The stretching through his suffering as He waited allowed Him to emerge with freshness; gave Him strength, and if you are going to get through what you’re going through, you have Wait Until You Get Strength!
Yes, Wait is the power to escape the force of the temptation - 1 Cor. 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
Yes, Wait is the authority to resist the enemy - James 4:7“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
Yes, Wait is the certainty of daily new mercies – Lamentations 3:22-23 “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”
Yes, Wait is the faith to see the goodness of God – Psalm 27:13 “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.
Yes, Wait is the ability to rest in the Lord - Psalm 37:7 “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him…”
Yes, Wait is the confidence that God’s will is best – Luke 22:42 “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
Yes, Wait is the faith to receive fresh strength - Isaiah 40:31 “...those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”
Wait until you get strength and somebody in here need to just stay right there where you are and endure the pain the suffering and just like that Vibranium suit; you are gaining strength; you were gaining ability; you are being renewed; you're being refreshed; you're being refined; you're being rejuvenated and when you come out you're gonna come out with more strength. Is there anybody in here that needs more strength? You may just need to claim it right now; I'm coming out, I'm coming out, I'm coming out in strength. Don't look at your neighbor you gotta claim it for yourself. What pain you going through, what suffering you have, what disturbance you’re in, you gotta claim I’m coming out and when you come out you're coming out with strength.