Let’s face it, we hate to wait. We live in an age of fast food and same-day delivery. When we are forced to wait for something, we quickly become the kid in the backseat asking every couple of miles, “Are we there yet?”
But our day-to-day waiting does not compare to seasons of waiting. Some forms of waiting are trying and painful, like waiting on a diagnosis, waiting for a job when you’re unemployed, waiting to have a child, waiting to get married, or waiting for a relational rift to heal.
What Isaiah 40:29-31 Says to Waiting People
It’s surprising that in the Bible we find few verses of Scripture from the book of Isaiah insist that waiting—and specifically waiting on the Lord—is actually a solution to our weariness. Isaiah 40:29-31 tells us that waiting “renews our strength” and causes us to “soar on wings like eagles.” What beautiful promises—but how do we understand them?
Isaiah 40 is full of contrasts. People wither like grass and fade like flowers, while the word of God stands forever (Isaiah 40:7-8). God holds the oceans of the earth cupped in his hand (Isaiah 40:12), but humans are just a drop in a bucket (Isaiah 40:15). People are grasshoppers compared to God who stretches out the heavens as easily as we set up a tent (Isaiah 40:22).
All these contrasts convey one idea. We are small and God is big.
Why Is It Hard to Wait?
We feel our smallness every day. Having to wait reminds us of our powerlessness. The apostle Paul wrote that all of creation waits to be set free from decay (Romans 8:19-23). This is certainly true for people. Even young people get tired after long hours of studying or working. As we age, we feel our bodies growing weaker and less resilient. All people suffer weakness.
There is more to our limitations than physical fatigue, though. As Christians, our eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit to see our spiritual condition. We feel the weight of sin pressing down upon and within us. Our own failures, the cruelty of others, and suffering in the world become too heavy to bear. Paul says we “groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23 ESV). Our souls are weak too.
How Does God Care for Weak People?
In our waiting, we must remember that God is big, unlimited, and powerful! God is the “Creator of the ends of the earth” who “does not faint or grow weary” (Isaiah 40:28 ESV). God oversees every detail of the universe and every moment of our lives. He never gets tired of sustaining his creation. He is never pressured by time or unable to meet his goals. He is working all things together for good in his perfect and inscrutable timing (Romans 8:28). He is eternally strong and is ready to help the weak.
When God freed his people from slavery in Egypt, he said that he “carried them out on eagles’ wings” (Exodus 19:4). In Isaiah’s day, the promise of mounting up on wings like eagles (Isaiah 40:31) would have recalled to his first hearer's minds when God rescued his people from exile. These verses are broadcasting that our powerful God saves and sustains his weak people.
What Does It Mean to Wait on the Lord?
Our waiting will never be in vain. Jesus already liberated us from the power of sin at the cross (1 Peter 2:24). He is coming again to free everyone who trusts in him from death and suffering (Hebrews 9:28). In the meantime, the Holy Spirit strengthens and encourages us in our waiting—he lifts us up when we cannot go on.
Waiting on the Lord means accepting our smallness and finding hope in God’s bigness. Waiting on the Lord means we trade in our weakness for his strength. Fall weary and exhausted at the Lord’s feet and call out to him to carry you onward in his strength today, and he will come and lift you up as though on eagle’s wings.
