They
that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings
as the eagles. They shall run and not be
weary. They shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah
40
The world we
live in is as full of idolatry today as it was in the days when people bowed
down to images of gold, silver, wood and stone.
Today it’s money. It’s your
favorite celebrity. It’s that wonderful
spiritual organization you belong to.
Your career. Your political
passion. Your ego. Whatever it is that drives you, other than
love for God, is an idol. It’s the
thing you serve, whether you realize it or not.
How often we
start out walking by faith in God, and end up enslaved
to an idol. Just like the Israelites,
who were brought out of
“Come on,
Aaron. You’re the high priest. Make us a god we can see!”
“Okay,” says
Aaron, “Give me your gold.”
And now the
Israelites who had been set free from slavery by the unseen God are bowing down
to a golden calf.
The same thing
is going on among believers today. We
claim to be worshiping God, but it’s so much easier to put your trust in
something you can touch or see. Something you can control.
But here’s the
catch:
When
you open your heart to an idol, that idol drains your strength. Whether your idol is money or your own ego,
that idol will drain you until it destroys you.
On
the other hand, when you wait upon the Lord, instead of draining your strength
he keeps renewing your strength, until one day you are standing before his
throne, shining with his glory.
They
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
Jack Short came
face-to-face with God when he was 25.
The word of the Lord knocked him off his feet one summer afternoon down
at the beach, when a friend offered to cut him in on
some shady business. Something inside
his soul shouted, “Don’t do it, Jack!
Get away from this guy!”
Where did that
voice come from? Who was it that spoke
like a fire alarm in his heart?
“I don’t know
who you are,” said Jack to that inner voice, when he was alone again, “but
whoever you are, show me the way.”
In the days
that followed, Jack Short became convinced that it was the voice of the
Lord. He opened his Bible, went to the
gospels and started to pay attention. He
couldn’t get enough of those words of Jesus.
Soon his soul was on fire.
Jack Short
found a church and went there faithfully every week. The people in that church recognized that
Jack had a gift for teaching. So he began to share with others everything he knew about
the Lord. People were drawn to Jack’s
teaching and gave their hearts to God.
Soon Jack was preaching with such power that crowds came wherever he
spoke.
During those
early days Jack Short took great care to keep his focus on one thing: God’s
kingdom, God’s World. He took time to
be alone with God every day. He made
sure he paid attention to the broken souls who came to him with their
troubles.
They
that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.
Jack Short knew
how to wait on the Lord. Prayer was the
foundation of everything he did.
One day a
wealthy stranger took Jack to lunch.
“You have a message that needs to be heard by the world,” said the
man. “I’m going to put you on TV.” It seemed like an opportunity sent from
heaven. Pretty soon Jack Short was a
household name in the Christian world, and he was busier than he’d ever been in
his life.
By this time
Jack had so much on his plate that he just didn’t have time for people as he
once did. And time spent alone with God
every day began to diminish as his phone kept ringing and meetings piled up.
Jack Short had
now become like the captain of a big ship.
It took all his strength to keep the ship
running like it should. What Jack didn’t
realize was that his ship, his “ministry,” had become his idol. And his idol was draining his strength. Jack
was so busy managing his ministry, he never got around to asking himself where
the ministry was going. Where he was going.
Without
realizing it, Jack Short had switched from waiting on God to waiting on his
idol. He was so busy expanding his own
kingdom, he lost touch with God’s Kingdom.
One day Jack Short woke up and discovered that he was a Christian
celebrity with an empty soul. Ah, but
then his i-phone rang, and he rushed off to another
meeting.
They
that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.
As
long as Jack Short
was waiting on the Lord, his strength was renewed and
he bore fruit for God’s Kingdom. But
when Jack allowed himself to be side-tracked by his idol, his kingdom,
instead of God’s Kingdom, his bank account grew fat
and his soul grew lean. Until one day,
like Samson of old, Jack Short discovered that his strength was gone.
This tragedy
doesn’t just happen to Christian celebrities. It happens to ordinary people
like you and me. When we get caught up
in serving our idol, we lose our strength.
Our faith withers because we are no longer waiting on
the Lord. Maybe we keep going through
the motions but we hardly have the strength to pray a
decent prayer.
So what does it mean to wait on the
Lord? Waiting on
the Lord is simply prayer, and the life of service that flows from prayer.
Jesus never
taught the disciples how to preach. He
never taught them how to heal. He never
gave seminars on casting out demons. He
just said, “Go out there and do it.” But Jesus was continuously teaching those
disciples how to pray. To keep praying
and never lose heart. To pray the way he did. At the
start of the day, Jesus prayed. When he
broke the bread, he prayed. After he fed
the multitude, he went into the hills and prayed. When he hung on the cross, he prayed.
So what do we pray for,
when we wait upon the Lord? We pray for
four things:
We
pray for focus.
We
pray for light.
We
pray for strength.
We
pray to set the captives free.
We pray for focus.
Nicodemus was a
teacher in
So one night he goes to see Jesus.
“
“Nicodemus,
what you’re looking for is the
World. But you’ll never even see God’s world until
you’re born of the Spirit.”
And when Jesus
talks about being born of the Spirit, he’s not talking about goose bumps and
pious feelings and announcing to the world that now we’re “born again.” He’s talking about allowing the Spirit of God
to enter us and focus our lives on the one thing needful;
God’s Kingdom, God’s World.
When Jack Short
lost his focus, he lost his strength.
When we get distracted by our idol, that idol drains our strength
away.
Lord, help us
to focus on you…on your Kingdom, so that we may mount up on wings as the
eagles.
We pray for light
When we were
focused on our idol, on that ambition, that dream, or even that jealous grudge,
everything seemed so clear. We knew
which way we wanted to go. We seemed to
know just what to do. But now that we’re
focused on God the road ahead is often cluttered with distractions, shrouded in
fog. We need light.
So we pray for light. And lo and behold, light comes.
“I
am the light of the world. Whoever
follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have
the light of life.”
John
8
That light
renews our strength until we mount up on wings as the eagles. Until we run and never get weary. We walk and never faint.
We pray for strength
The Apostle
Paul had this thorn in the flesh. We
don’t know what it was. Was it an eye
problem? Stomach trouble? Somebody giving him a hard time? Whatever it was, this thorn kept him weak.
So Paul prayed, “Lord take it
away!” Three times he cried out for
relief from this thorn. But Paul got an
answer he didn’t expect.
“My grace is sufficient for you, my strength is
made perfect in weakness.”
Paul got
strength. God’s strength. Power to ignite the fire of God’s Kingdom all
over the
To be able to
keep going when times get tough, to be able to plow through the smoke and the
confusion of this dark world and not lose heart, we need that strength. All we have to do
is ask. And keep asking. His strength always comes, never fails.
We pray to set the
captives free.
"The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives.
Luke 4
In a world where millions are
being drained of strength and destroyed by their idols, Jesus comes to set us
free. He died on the cross, he rose from
the dead, and now he sets us free through prayer.
Scripture tells us that the
risen Lord ever lives to make intercession---prayer--- for those who draw near
to God through him. (Hebrews 7:25)
So we enter into
the prayers of our Master. In his name we set the captives free through
prayer. The Lord puts names into our hearts.
The names of people he wants us to pray for. God will do things for these people through
our prayers that will only happen through prayer. Why God sets it up this way is a
mystery. But that’s how it is.
So we pray for our loved ones, neighbors,
friends in the church, friends from the past.
We pray for our enemies, people who give us a hard time. We lift them by name before the throne every day, and let heaven flood them with grace. It’s the most important ministry God will
ever give us. The Spirit may even guide us to pray for the downfall of a
tyrant. This kind of prayer has
unspeakable power.
Jack Short
started off with grace and power, until his “ministry” became his idol and
drained his strength. But there’s still
hope for Jack. All he has
to do is go back to Square One, and all heaven will come to his
aid.
The same is
true for us. All heaven is waiting to
lift us into a place brighter than we’ve ever known, if we will but answer the
Master’s call to come along side with him and pray.
Pray
for focus.
Pray
for light.
Pray
for strength.
Set
those captives free through prayer.
If we wait upon
our idol, our idol will drain us until it destroys us.
If we wait upon
the Lord, the Lord will renew our strength day by day until the day we stand,
shining and radiant, before his throne.