Good morning! I hope this day finds you and your family well, and I want you to know that you are in my prayers daily during this difficult time.
I invite you to take a few moments with me to reflect on today’s Upper Room Devotional below — as well as on the theology woven into “It is well with my soul.”
Today’s Scripture:
Isaiah 40:28-31 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.
30 Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;
31 but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.
Tim’s Devotional Reflection for Today
I quoted this passage of scripture recently in our daily bread and asked the question, What is the source of your strength when your strength is depleted? It is a good question to ask ourselves in a time when many of us are feeling exhausted with all that is going on in our world.
The words of Isaiah 40 were written to people who had actually been kicked off the hill where God’s temple stood and found themselves strangers in a strange land, bearing the yoke of slavery again, and looking for hope. They were spiritually, physically, and emotionally exhausted.
So, this word of hope came to them from God through the prophet Isaiah: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless” (vv. 28-29).
It’s amazing what spiritual and physical exhaustion can do to us. We can begin to think that we’re not worthy, that God has abandoned us, that we’re too tired to even consider the future. But throughout the Bible, over and over again, are words that remind us that God is never going to give up on us, that God “does not faint or grow weary.”
Through the years, I have often read this passage of scripture in funeral or memorial services. When the family of the person who is deceased feels like they are at the end of their strength, when they feel emotionally spent, and when they are carrying a burden of grief that at times feels too heavy to bear, these words offer a reminder that there is a source of strength beyond their own. That source is the One who never grows faint or weary and the one who renews our strength for yet another day.
Thank you for sharing this early moment of your day with me, with God, and with the words and music that I hope you will carry with you throughout the coming day and night.
I am so grateful for you, for our church, and for the Love that will see us all through this very difficult time. Please stay safe and well and we’ll be together again in spirit tomorrow morning!
Grace and Peace,
Dr. Tim Bruster
Senior Pastor
Here’s more about this passage of scripture via Upper Room devotionals:
LASTING BEAUTY
Today I will seek to see Christ in myself.
