Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary… Once when I was in Switzerland I saw an eagle, a splendid bird, but it was chained to a rock. It had some twenty or thirty feet of chain attached to its legs, and to an iron bolt in the rock. There was the king of birds, meant to soar into heaven, chained down to earth. That is the life of multitudes of believers. Are you allowing business, are you allowing the cares of the world, are you allowing the flesh to chain you down, so that you cannot rise up? 1. You ask me, How can I get these eagle wings? I answer, How did the eagle get its wings? By its birth. It was born a royal eagle; it had a royal descent. And every child of God is born with eagle wings. God means you to live a heavenly life. 2. How does God teach His eaglet children to use their wings? He comes and stirs up their nest. Sometimes with a trying providence, with a death, with sickness, with loss, with some tribulation, with temptation. Why? Just as those eaglets, ready to sink, find the mother coming under them and carrying them, so the everlasting arms are stretched out underneath the soul that feels itself ready to perish, and God calls upon the soul to trust Him. As the eaglet trusts the mother to carry it, God asks me to trust Him, that He will bear me. And God longs to teach His children to mount on eagle wings. But how can they do it? "They that wait upon the Lord shall mount up with wings as eagles." God often comes to the Christian worker and stirs up the nest, because He sees the eagle wings are not being used. 3. What is the characteristic of the eagle wings? To be able to mount up to heaven, the wings of the eagle must have greater strength than the wings of any other bird. And God wants His children to be so strong that they can live above the world. The great mark of the disciple of Christ that Christ spoke of in His prayer to the Father was, "They are not of the world, as I am not of the world." They belong to heaven, their life and heart are there. This idea of strength is the great idea of our text, and you have it in the words that precede (vers. 28-31). You find that word "faint" four times in the passage. First, it is God "fainteth not"; and then it is, He giveth power to the "faint"; and then it is, the young men shall "faint." All human strength shall faint — the very strongest shall faint and be of no avail. Then, "They shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not 'faint.'" (Andrew Murray.) Parallel Verses KJV: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. |
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