As for most over the past few months, church has not met in person. At least this has brought us together in new ways and with new appreciation. The saying about that the church is not a place but people has taken on new meaning.
After the messages leading up to and on Easter, Pastor Dean started a new series titled, "Encouraging Words for Difficult Days." While it is initially coming off of the current circumstances the world is in right now, I love to also look at the passages he has used so far in life as a whole! We are only two weeks in, but it has been great! They haven't been in passages that I haven't applied to my life probably hundreds of times, but that's one of the beauties of the Bible. The same thing can hit so differently at different times.
I know that there are a lot of people struggling and in rough shape, and a lot of people probably have plenty of reasons to feel hopeless, but from someone who has a hope in the Lord that has gotten me through a long list of my own struggles and is facing each day with the same hope, I want to share some of what I am hearing from these messages and how it has encouraged me, so hopefully someone else in need can see how the scriptures can shine light on every day in our personal lives.
(**these are pictures I took of a real bald eagle in my neighborhood on a walk last month!**)
While this passage was written soooo long ago, the attitude of the first two sentences are easily comparable to today's language. How often do we talk to people like, "Hello? How do you not know [fill-in-the blank with something we think is obvious?]"?
As Christians also living in the world like every human, it can be easy to get caught up in our circumstances and wonder why things are the way they are. We are human, and we don't understand a lot of things. But as Christians, we know the obvious facts of faith, like that God is in control of this earth He created, but we need to be reminded. Not that we forget, but that we lose sight.
The simple answer to "why" undesirable things happen is because of sin. We deserve bad things, honestly, but in considering what we do get compared to what we deserve to get, we are doing good.
Sometimes we can see reasons why, but other times we are left wondering. In the times our earthly minds can't wrap around something happening, remember Isaiah 55:8-9 where God reminds us, "For your thoughts are not My thoughts, neither are your ways My ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts."
Peace comes with surrendering to that. It may not make sense on the surface, but when things are out of our control, BUT we know that they are in God's control, we don't have to worry. That's a big weight taken off of your shoulders from when you are trying to support and control your own entire life. So when you screw up, it's all your fault. But God never screws up.
There are three characteristics of God from verses 28-30 that can give us peace:
1. God is all-powerful. -- the Creator of the ends of the earth who never grows tired or weary
2. He is all-knowing. -- His understanding that no one can fathom.
3. He is all-sufficient. -- He gives power to the weak and renews the strength of the weak.
Where we lack, He is more than enough.
Not only must we know the promises of God, we must believe them!
There were some awesome things about the word "wait" that I learned in this message. Waiting isn't fun, and our world has made it totally undesirable from all of the technological advances and simply the negative connotation we have put on waiting. We hate waiting in line, to be seated at a restaurant, someone to respond to a text, the end of the school year, etc...
The Hebrew word for wait is "qahvah," and it has three meanings: patience, service, and confidence.
This is something that I have learned to appreciate through years of off and on struggles that have led to the greatest growth in my faith. Y'all may think I'm crazy for some of this, but that's fine. I want to share the joy that I have even in the hard times so that hopefully someone else will be able to see joy in their circumstances, too, or at least have the courage to try to change their perspective.
1. Patience-I've never been good at it, but I know God like to work on our weaknesses. Time is going so fast! I don't want to rush anything away anymore. Even when there is something good coming up, or I am just in a seemingly dull week, rainy week, etc., I don't wish that time away. I love summer, but school is great, too. I love running big miles and workouts, but I've found joy in the easy days and giving myself a break. I want healing, but I've learned to use the pain to grow and improve in different areas. Some days feel slow, but I think of the days that I feel too overwhelmed with tasks yet to do. In patience is where I really see Him at work.
"I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry." Psalm 40:1
2. Service-Continues from patience! Not only do we tend to think of waiting negatively, we also do not consider it an active time. Waiting is when we just sit. We don't do anything while we wait because, well, we are waiting on something else. But in the time we wait, there is so much we can do! Keep faith in the waiting! Keep living and loving. Be useful rather than idle. Lately, while some may say they're waiting on things to go back to normal, I am, too, but I am also enjoying working and serving in many different ways that I wouldn't "normally" be--shopping with and for Mom, for my grandparents, volunteering with my church, making and sending mail, simply praying for and talking to people, and working for DoorDash and Instacart. Who knows what else I may get into?! I like to look at this time as one that is a unique opportunity and look for what I can do to make the most of it.
"Wait for the Lord, and keep His way. He will exalt you to inherit the land." Psalm 37:34
3. Confidence-Listed third, I think that's accurate to how we develop these three things. Yeah, I'm only 22, but after all I've been through and all I've learned, gained patience, persevered in the waiting, I have confidence that God will always come through. He already has everything worked out, and it will come to fruition in His timing. I can get through every challenge, sad day, tired body or soul because I am confident in His plan, provision, and goodness. He has never left me nor forsaken me (Hebrews 13:5). This is where my joy comes from. Not that I have joy because things are always good, but I have joy even when things are bad because I have the hope that things are working together for my good (Romans 8:28). I literally have Word Docs full of things to remind me of how He has shown up repeatedly in daily life, so we will have more examples in various posts.
"Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded." Hebrews 10:35
"For You have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth." Psalm 71:5
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him." Jeremiah 17:7
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." 1 John 5:14
Another Hebrew thing that really stood out to me about "wait" and "quahvah" is that the root word means "to twist or bind together like cords." Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, "A cord of three strands is not easily broken." So waiting, with its three parts listed above, and its root like a cord, is not easily broken!
The promise that follows in verse 31 is that we will renew our strength and mount up on wings like eagles. The word renew means to exchange--we will exchange our weaknesses for strength, our tiredness for energy, our despair for hope! This exchange is key in life with Christ. We can't just keep adding things or just take something out. For there to be a lasting effect, there has to be an exchange. Replace a bad habit with a new routine, a sin with a good action, etc. John 3:30 says, "He must become greater, I must become less."
We can also learn a lot from the life of an eagle. Pastor Dean added to this from something he once heard in another message (see how we all learn from each other? Sometimes we just need someone else to be like verse 28 and say, "Do you not see this?").
1. The eagle learns to fly through great struggle. -- The momma makes him work to get his food and learn to fly. Moving around the nest strengthens his muscles. Struggling to stay in the air when he falls out of the nest works his flying muscles so much so that one day he can do it on his own. Though he may fall, the mother catches him when he is too weak to do it on his own, but she still lets him learn as he falls. -- The same goes with God. He gives us grace when we fall, but we still have to do our part in working. Sometimes we have to fall in order to go higher. I can assure you I never would have made the great changes in my life if I hadn't messed up first.
2. Eagles have powerful vision. -- They can focus in on one single thing, one goal to prey on, from very far away. A challenge for anyone, me included, is to find this focus on the goals God has set out for me and keep that focus until I reach the goal.
3. The eagle loves the storm. -- Riding the wind current helps the eagle fly higher. I saw a post on Instagram the day before with a quote that really stuck with me, "You can't stop a storm, but you can ride the waves." That reminds me also of the saying about how we can't control the cards we are dealt, but we can control how we play them. Perspective is heee-uge.
4. The eagle's chief enemy is the snake. -- Satan is a snake if ya didn't know...but eagles grab up the snakes with their talons and take them way high to drop them on the rocks where the impact kills them. Christ is our Rock, where we can take our sins and struggles for Him to defeat (1 Corinthians 10:4, Psalm 62).
5. Eagles lay their eggs in winter. -- Not a desirable time to lay eggs, but they do so in confidence that spring is coming. We, too, must lay eggs, plant seeds, do work in the colder, tougher times, having faith that better days are coming, Christ will come through! If we don't do anything now, there is no reason to think things will ever get better later. If you don't plant seeds before the weather gets warmer, you can't expect anything to grow to harvest.
6. Eagles die facing the sun. -- When an eagles knows his time is coming, he flies up to a high place to face the sun and die in peace. When we have lived our lives having accepted Jesus, we can have peace knowing that when we leave this earth, we will face the sun...The Son.
Finally, I found it very encouraging to hear one more historical word meaning from this final verse. "Run" and "walk" are military terms, where "run" refers to the battle, a fight, the attack and the enemy, while "walk" refers to the routine, day-to-day march. This assures us that God cares about all aspects of our life, big or small, challenging or monotonous, with others or alone, something complex or simple, He is there and cares through it all.
Take this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson and let it simmer on your stove for a bit: "The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear. It is the storm within that endangers him, not the storm without."
The promise that follows in verse 31 is that we will renew our strength and mount up on wings like eagles. The word renew means to exchange--we will exchange our weaknesses for strength, our tiredness for energy, our despair for hope! This exchange is key in life with Christ. We can't just keep adding things or just take something out. For there to be a lasting effect, there has to be an exchange. Replace a bad habit with a new routine, a sin with a good action, etc. John 3:30 says, "He must become greater, I must become less."
We can also learn a lot from the life of an eagle. Pastor Dean added to this from something he once heard in another message (see how we all learn from each other? Sometimes we just need someone else to be like verse 28 and say, "Do you not see this?").
1. The eagle learns to fly through great struggle. -- The momma makes him work to get his food and learn to fly. Moving around the nest strengthens his muscles. Struggling to stay in the air when he falls out of the nest works his flying muscles so much so that one day he can do it on his own. Though he may fall, the mother catches him when he is too weak to do it on his own, but she still lets him learn as he falls. -- The same goes with God. He gives us grace when we fall, but we still have to do our part in working. Sometimes we have to fall in order to go higher. I can assure you I never would have made the great changes in my life if I hadn't messed up first.
2. Eagles have powerful vision. -- They can focus in on one single thing, one goal to prey on, from very far away. A challenge for anyone, me included, is to find this focus on the goals God has set out for me and keep that focus until I reach the goal.
3. The eagle loves the storm. -- Riding the wind current helps the eagle fly higher. I saw a post on Instagram the day before with a quote that really stuck with me, "You can't stop a storm, but you can ride the waves." That reminds me also of the saying about how we can't control the cards we are dealt, but we can control how we play them. Perspective is heee-uge.
4. The eagle's chief enemy is the snake. -- Satan is a snake if ya didn't know...but eagles grab up the snakes with their talons and take them way high to drop them on the rocks where the impact kills them. Christ is our Rock, where we can take our sins and struggles for Him to defeat (1 Corinthians 10:4, Psalm 62).
5. Eagles lay their eggs in winter. -- Not a desirable time to lay eggs, but they do so in confidence that spring is coming. We, too, must lay eggs, plant seeds, do work in the colder, tougher times, having faith that better days are coming, Christ will come through! If we don't do anything now, there is no reason to think things will ever get better later. If you don't plant seeds before the weather gets warmer, you can't expect anything to grow to harvest.
6. Eagles die facing the sun. -- When an eagles knows his time is coming, he flies up to a high place to face the sun and die in peace. When we have lived our lives having accepted Jesus, we can have peace knowing that when we leave this earth, we will face the sun...The Son.
Finally, I found it very encouraging to hear one more historical word meaning from this final verse. "Run" and "walk" are military terms, where "run" refers to the battle, a fight, the attack and the enemy, while "walk" refers to the routine, day-to-day march. This assures us that God cares about all aspects of our life, big or small, challenging or monotonous, with others or alone, something complex or simple, He is there and cares through it all.
Take this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson and let it simmer on your stove for a bit: "The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear. It is the storm within that endangers him, not the storm without."
