Worth the Climb

November 30
Isaiah 40:28-31

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.

Sometimes we think we know the power, the genius, the endurance, the wisdom, the generosity of God; and in theory, we do, for we have studied His Word and employed our faith through decades of loving and serving Him. But until He actually meets us at the point of our need, until He increases might to us when we have no strength, until we are like the youth who faint and are weary and the young men who utterly fall, Isaiah 40:29, 30, we cannot begin to discern the reality of His promise to raise us up as we wait on Him.

I can speak only for myself, but I know that I have never enjoyed the sense of having power and being indefatigable as I have when I found power and strength at the point of my utter failure and weakness and weariness...when I knew that I knew that I knew the power and strength were there for me but they weren't from within me--they came from Jesus.

One of those times was when my doctor told me I had a deteriorating kidney and I'd require a kidney machine to stay alive but God broke through that dire prognosis because of the power of prayer; HE said I was whole and healthy and well. I have never needed a kidney machine in the forty years since that diagnosis was made.

Another time was when my doctor told me I had a tumor. I was devastated at the news as I sat in his office on a Friday afternoon. The diagnosis was to be confirmed the following Monday by having tests scheduled that could be done only at the hospital. That Sunday I sat heartbroken in church until there was a message in tongues and the Holy Spirit touched my abdomen. I recognized that touch because I'd felt Him before--and I knew God was now healing me. Monday's test confirmed God's promise.

Those wonderful times of visitation from the Lord Jesus Christ sometimes seem long ago and far away, but I know His revitalization power is as real today is it was then, for "He is the same yesterday, today, and forever," Hebrews 13:8.

You may be weary to the point of despair and defeat, but He wants you to know with every fiber of your being that HE IS YOUR STRENGTH WHEN YOU HAVE NO STRENGTH, Hebrews 40:29, for "God is no respecter of persons," Acts 10:34.

He has not done some wonderful miracle for me that He is will not do for you. The struggle may not be easy. The answer may not be in sight. The road to the joy He promises is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10) may not seem worth the climb--but it is.