Episode #25: How to Fly Like An Eagle and Never Get Weary
Mar 17, 2021
Do you ever wonder what it would be like to have superpowers? Snap your fingers and your laundry is done for the whole year. Blink like Jeannie and your kids are home from whatever they need to be home from? You say the word — it’s done!
What a dream! But I can do you one better — no dreaming required.
As a child of God, it’s possible for your strength to be renewed every single day and though you may not be superwoman, you can still fly like an eagle. Keep reading . . .
Note:
The Theme of the Month is Burnout and the Word of the Week is renew. Following is the corresponding devotional -- the text version of the podcast segment. Mentioned resources and links from the Desk to Desk audio only segment are at the end of the devotional.
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Renew.
“But they who wait for 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.” - Isaiah 40:31
This is one of my most favorite passages of Scripture. I mean, the imagery is fantastic. Can’t you just see the eagle mounting up and soaring? How gorgeous.
I got to see this first hand recently. We have a lot of eagles near us here by the largest lake in Iowa and also by some rivers. In one week I got to see a group of 17 eagles hanging out together near the lake and the very next day I got to see about 7 a little further south near my grandma’s house. My husband and I pulled over to watch them for a few minutes and I happened to have a pair of binoculars my grandma had just given me -- they had belonged to my grandpa. How convenient! They showed off, too. Occasionally one would take a quick soar around the area. John is always saying he never ever gets tired of seeing eagles and I wholeheartedly agree.
The imagery of eagles here would have been familiar to the original audience of this Scripture -- the ancient Hebrews greatly revered eagles and even back then eagles were symbols of strength and power -- they acknowledged eagles’ tenacity and the way they fiercely cared for their young.
In fact, the image of an eagle caring for his young is one God uses to describe His own care for His people. In Exodus 19, the Lord gives Moses a message for His people while they were wandering in the desert after He rescued them from slavery: “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.”
In the book of Proverbs the eagle makes an appearance again, topping the list of things God has created that are just incomprehensible:
“Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky,the way of a serpent on a rock,the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a virgin.”
Make no mistake that when God’s people heard this word from Isaiah, the eagle imagery resonated deeply with them.
The prophet Isaiah was talking to a very discouraged group of people here. The Israelites at that time were weary and hopeless and oppressed after the Assyrians had come and conquered their lands.In fact, this passage of Scripture also tells us they were wondering if God even knew what they were going through.
So God answered. And here is how He answered through the prophet Isaiah. Now if you are feeling weary, too, if you are feeling hopeless and discouraged -- all things that play a role in burnout -- then remember this passage is for you, too. Israel’s God is yours.
“Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God’? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for 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” (ESV).
So we’ve seen the beautiful and powerful imagery of the eagle in this passage and the promise that we can mount up and soar just like the eagle but I want to draw your attention to two more thoughts here:
Look at the progression of activity. It’s actually a digression if you look at the order -- you go from soaring like an eagle, to running and then walking. I love this because it’s a reminder that living in the strength of the Lord doesn’t always equate to soaring. We can merely be walking. Or running -- way down here on the ground, not in the sky. No matter what God has for us, though, the promise remains the same -- we’re not gonna faint. We're not going to grow weary. Our strength will be like an eagle’s strength -- renewed for our next assignment, in the nick of time.
Which brings me to my final point -- this is a promise of God yes, but it comes with a condition:
Waiting on the Lord. It’s only when we wait on the Lord that we find renewed strength and the ability to run and not be weary and walk and not faint.
That’s the key. Why would God give us this condition for His promise to strengthen us?
Could it be because when we don’t wait on the Lord, we rely on our own strength? Our feeble strength that fails us every single time?
Could it be because He wants us to live our lives according to His plan and not ours? His wonderful, perfect plan isn’t what tires us, you know -- it’s our own. In Matthew 11:30 Jesus says His yoke is easy. His burden is light. And invites us to come to Him and find rest -- the context there or course is that he was speaking in reference to the Pharisees who were teaching people that their salvation depended entirely on them and their own works -- which is a burden too heavy for anyone to bear.
Are you bearing that burden unnecessarily?
Waiting on the Lord is an amazing theme to trace throughout Scripture and when you do so you get the very clear message that waiting on the Lord is equivalent to trusting the Lord. And Psalm 9:10 says “They who know your name will put their trust in you.” In other words the more you know who the Lord is -- by reading Scripture by praying by obeying and growing as a Christian -- the more you will trust Him.
Waiting on the Lord looks like trusting and obeying and depending. It’s a lifestyle but it's not a wearisome lifestyle. It’s a joyful, restful one. Because He gives us eagles wings to fly beyond our obstacles. The phrase mount up in Isaiah 40:31 is a translation of the Hebrew word ˈalah, which means “to go up, ascend, to go up over a boundary.”
My prayer for you this week is that you would wait on the Lord for His timing, His plan, His work in your life -- not trying to do it all your way and in your time -- and for you to enjoy the flight. Enjoy soaring. Or walking. Or running. Whatever God has for you to do this week. Know -- that He will give you strength. You only need to trust. You only need to wait.
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Desk to Desk Links and Resources:
The question of the week is:
- What have you been reading in God’s Word lately?
Email me at [email protected] or comment or message me on Instagram or Facebook.
Book Recommendation:
Then Sings My Soul, Volume 1
By Robert J. Morgan / Thomas Nelson
