Daily Lesson for July 23, 2020

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 40 verses 28 through 31:

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.

“And not faint . . .”

These are the words I want us to hear this morning. “And not faint,” and also “Wait”.

The road ahead is long. We are eager to get going and get there; but perhaps we don’t know how far “there” is. As the crow flies it may not seem that distant. But as humans walk, we are talking a long, long time.

So we wait on the LORD. We renew our strength. We prepare spiritually. We prepare for a long, long walk.

The death of Congressman John Lewis on Friday was a tough loss for our nation.  He knew about the long walk.  He knew about the long march. I shared a quote from him in Sunday’s sermon which I want to share here now:

“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime.”

It’s a long road we have before us. And it won’t be easy. We will die of despair later if we don’t realize that now. And we will keel over from spiritual exhaustion if we don’t wait and walk with the LORD’s spirit — or, as John Lewis said, “walk with the wind”.

The eagle flies with the wind. And we shall mount up with eagles’ wings.  And if we can’t do that then we’ll run.  And when we can’t do that anymore we’ll just walk.

But we will never stop going . . .

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow’s Lesson comes from Isaiah chapters 44 through 48.