He Increases Strength – Isaiah 40:27-31

I’ve seen the video so many times you’d think I’d be tired of it.  But as I watched it again I noticed something different.  Derek Redmon comes up injured in the 400-meter race at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics and tries to finish, limping, when his dad comes out of the stands and puts his son’s arm around his own shoulder and helps him complete the race.  What I didn’t notice until this time is the way Olympic officials kept coming up to them trying either to get them off the track or to help them and Derek’s father keeps waving them away and using some obviously angry words.  The father will not let his son fail to finish the race.  Cool!  Same with our Father.

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.  (Isaiah 40:27-31 ESV)

When we’re in the midst of suffering, even when it is for our own sins, we are tempted to think God has abandoned us, that He no longer cares, that He will not rescue us because He is worn out with us.

But God does not get weary.  He does not abandon His children.  He sees and understands our plight and desires to give us strength we do not have.  No one has the strength to stand up to life’s hardships alone and no one is sufficient to deal with God’s discipline without wearying.

But those who wait for God, those who trust in His deliverance and not their own strength, will be strengthened by Him beyond their own abilities.  Instead of giving out before crossing the finish line, they will sprint and walk all the way with God’s strength.

Discussion Questions

1. What is the longest or hardest race you have run?
2. Have you ever felt abandoned by God in the middle of your “race” and had He in fact abandoned you, as if you didn’t matter?
3. Why do you think some people believe God gets tired when  dealing with them?  Where does that thinking come from?
4. Not only is God’s power unflagging, but his understanding is unsearchable.  Why is it important to you that both those things are true?
5. What do you think it means to “wait” for the Lord?
6. What is something you have been waiting on the Lord for and need His strength to do?