saiah 40:28-29 “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.”
Doesn’t it seem that in life there are two kinds of people: those who are capable and those who are caring? Very rarely do you find both characteristics in the same person! You can find a person who cares, but they have no money. You may find a person with a million dollars, but he probably doesn’t care a lick about you!
Sometimes we treat God like those people. We know that God is capable, but somehow we imagine that He doesn’t care about us. Or perhaps we think He cares, but we doubt that He is capable. Now, we wouldn’t dare say as much, but we live that way. Isaiah 40 reminds us that God is both capable and caring.
The children of Israel were experiencing (or would experience) God’s judgment on their lives. This judgment caused them to question where God was-“Why sayest thou . . . My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?” (verse 27) No one wonders where God is when things are going well. Our minds think that God is far away when things are bad, even thought the exact opposite is true! It can be tempting to question if God is capable or if He is caring, but both questions are lacking–He is both capable and caring!
Verse 28 reminds us that God does know and “there is no searching of his understanding.” There is no way for you to know everything that God knows. So God does know, but that is only half of it; to stop there would be incomplete. Verse 29 reminds us that He “giveth power to the faint; and . . . he increaseth strength.” He is capable!
Everybody has their limit. Even the person you can think of that is in the prime of his life, business, athletic career, etc., has a limit. Everybody runs down at some point, but God never tires!(verses 30-31) If I rely on my own strength, that can only go so far. “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength. . . .” What wonderful news!
Notice that the Bible speaks of waiting on God, not just trusting. Often it is easy to trust God when you know how He will provide. I have often used the illustration of a rich uncle who could pay your bills in a heartbeat. But waiting on God is trusting God even when you do not know how or when He will provide!
We wait so that God will supply; God supplies in order that we will wait. Did you catch the difference? What is valuable to me tends to be the provision; what is valuable to God tends to be the waiting. God made everything, so the provision does not impress Him. What He is after is my waiting. And the only way–most times–He gets my waiting is if I have a need that I am asking Him for. God is both capable and caring, and Isaiah 40 reminds us of that very fact this morning.
Prayer Requests:
– Revival services tonight in Franklin, IN; Renovo, PA; Dixons Mills, AL; and Middletown, DE