Thoughts on Isaiah 40:28-31

Thoughts on Isaiah 40:28-31 by John W. Ritenbaugh

"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

And the young men shall utterly fall, But 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."

God is the source of strength, power, and refreshment. They all come from our relationship with God within the proper keeping of the Sabbath day. He gives it to us as a gift of His grace. Through the rest provided, He restores our energy.

He gives us the power to overcome and to grow.

He gives us peace of mind so that we are truly rested.

He helps us to recover our strength.

He enables us to live confident, hope-filled lives.

He gives us good health and sound minds.

"The Lord gives His beloved sleep" (Psalm 172:2).

He gives us strength-restoring sleep. All of these things are gifts of grace from time well-spent in fellowship with Him, developing the relationship with Him and communicating with Him in Bible study and prayer.

We tend to look at the Sabbath day as "things that we cannot do" rather than "things we can do" -- truly liberating things we cannot devote time to do on the other six days of the week.

Let us be mindful of His claim to 1/7th of our time. Let us use it to our refreshing and to His glory. Let us devote a portion of each day to Bible reading and study and to prayer.

Is 1/7th of our time really enough when the Word tells us to "give ourselves to prayer"? Perhaps as we begin with a fraction of our day spent in prayer, we will find that HE indeed, "inhabits the praise of His people."

That time of abiding in His nearness will be so precious that we will want to expand it, and in the sweetness of His presence, we will want to continually abide.