Those who have not eagle's wings still have some power of motion, they can run on the earth and in the path of God's commandments. THE HOPES THAT ARE BASED ON FAITH GIVE STRENGTH TO LIVE FOR GOD. As we read his words the image they call up is of three modes of motion, three rates of progression the flight of the eagle, the swift foot of the deer, and the ordinary pace of man. This sounds as if they were in danger of becoming weary and faint in their minds. The result will be as it is figuratively expressed: We shall mount up; we shall run; we shall walk.I. L. Wiseman, B. It puts before us the thought, not of a new gift, but of a new experience of an old gift. "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; they shall walk, and not faint." 31 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. )Running and walkingF. And the first thing that strikes us is the language used by the prophet language so far removed from mere formal expression. "The joy of the Lord is your strength."III. What is the reason of all this? HOW ARE WE TO RENEW OUR STRENGTH? L. Wiseman, B. Now when he ceases from self and takes God as his strength, he changes his strength.2. But when the Holy Spirit enters into any man, his thoughts and affections are raised to those things which are above. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength," they are coupled up to the source of power without, and being coupled to the power without, the effect of every throb of the engine is communicated to the carriages, and the love of every beat of the heart of God comes down to the Church of the living God.(F. But let them meet with some strong temptation and they are presently weary of those purposes and endeavours. A. "They shall mount up with wings as eagles," is God's preliminary; for the next promise is, "They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint." --ISAIAH xl. The Philistines were utterly unable to find out in what the amazing strength of Samson consisted, until he revealed it to his espoused wife. The spiritual is so real. There, throughout, we find the Divine life in man described as a "walk." It puts forth its utmost strength in rising towards its Source when the Christian enters into fellowship with the Father and the Son.1. The recurrence of the same form of interrogation in these two verses is remarkable. (2) In the subject, for the former strength is only in the outward, this in the inward man. But, in order to obtain aid from on high, we must make use of the appointed and appropriate means. It is like a river or a stream always passing away, and yet the power is always present; the power moving the mill-wheel, not by jerks, but by a continuous stream, always passing away, and yet ever flowing in; one measure of strength succeeding that which has been expended. The man who waits upon God has three cardinal qualities which above all others will tend to the conquest of the world buoyancy of spirits, activity, and perseverance; the man who can command these is the man who will win.(F. Magnetise a needle, and it becomes much more sensitive to the force of the magnet. Cf. --Isaiah 40:1. Cultivate also the habit of waiting for orders. He comes down from the mount made ready, like Moses, for work in the camp at large, or in the retirement of his tent. )God's grace sufficient for all life's stagesJ. Among all the names that reveal God, this, the "God of all comfort," seems to me one of the loveliest and the most absolutely comforting. This man, however, has this double life. L. Wiseman, B. If then those who run are not weary, the same when they walk shall not faint. "Caught up into the third heaven" he had seen "visions and revelations"; but he does not appeal to them as any sign of special grace. 5 Then at thy feet Isaac WattsHymns and Spiritual SongsAt RestGerhard Ter Steegen Is. How much of meaning is couched in those two words, "My people!" Tymms. If we trust and obey, obey and trust, we rise into a purer atmosphere, and have a clearer vision we live in the very presence of God. But waiting on the Lord implies much more than this. If I am to run and walk I must be in close communion with God; I must. When we have done flying, we go on running. Horton, D. D.)Renewing strengthT. Knight, M. A.I. Do you remember after His statement of great intellectual and moral truths that make the brain weary and the heart of the uninitiated faint, it is recorded that the Lord Jesus Christ's spirit leapt for joy, and He said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes"! You are to wait for supplies. Faith and hope and love itself, so dewy fresh in the morning, spend themselves in noonday's scorching heat, and run low at eventide. Thine Arms, to whom I turn and cling With thirsting soul that longs for Thee; Frances BevanHymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and OthersHis Schools and Schoolmasters. Some carriages standing on the middle line of rails were to be attached to our train. (Andrew Murray. Waiting, in Scripture language, is a term used to denote dependence. "I can do all things," said Paul, "through Christ which strengtheneth me." Horton, D. D.)Waiting upon the LordJ. Maybe in revolutions and bloodshed, for the wheels of God grind inexorably and small. "They Shall Mount up with Wings" (Isa. In short, it is a grace, just as much as the grace of faith, or love, or humility. For every new occasion, every new trial, every new labour, we shall get new power. Horton, D. D.)Renewing strengthT. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received at the LORD 's hand double for all her sins. WE SEE HOW A TRUE CHURCH MAY BE DESCRIBED. The elements of this strength are (1) Faith, founded on Divine illumination. Is prayer less a privilege than it has John Ross MacduffThe Faithful Promiser"And the Redeemer Shall Come unto Zion, and unto them that Turn,"Isaiah lix. "Waiting on the Lord" by prayer has the same effect on them that it has on an empty bucket to set it under a rain-spout. THE SEVERAL BRANCHES OF THE PROMISE.(S. The older Jewish commentators imagined they discovered here a reference to an ancient belief that at a certain time the eagle plunged into the sea and bathed off his worn-out plumage, and that afterwards new feathers grew. Hast Thou Not? WHAT IS THE ISSUE OF SUCH WAITING UPON GOD? They are said, in our text, "to mount up on wings as eagles." THIS STRENGTH REQUIRES TO BE RENEWED. Let us not be impatient of them. We are shown the infinite powers that He concealed in the heart of a solitary man of faith. 31 But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. As bodily health is only found in a well-balanced and healthy state of the corporeal functions, so spiritual strength can only be found in souls into which new life has been infused, and is in vigorous exercise. Thank God, too, for the running stage. T he particulars of the great "mystery of godliness," as enumerated by the Apostle Paul, constitute the grand and inexhaustible theme of the Gospel ministry, "God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on John NewtonMessiah Vol. Presently a new appetite for food was awakened, and a new life crept into my ten fingers; walking became a delight, and preaching as easy as for a lark to sing. God must be waited for. 9. Where there is strength there will be diligence in well-doing. By a sudden impetus or effort. 9. Who can measure the unfailing strength which inspires the Christian when he feels that he is safe in the threefold grasp of the Triune God?II. And when He Calls us home, He who sits upon the circle of the heavens, and sees all the sorrow of this world as you and I can never see it, bids us "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." That is the teaching of the prophet. A. What is the reason of all this? That is a very lame finish. )Strength of soul made perfect by hope in GodW. Bound up with this we see the generation of a higher ethic; the birth of a nobler conception of life, as the sphere for rightness of aim and righteousness of character. The period of fresh, wild enthusiasms; the season of zeal without discretion, when all sorts of impossibilities are dreamed, all sorts of vain things attempted. They get filled. Nothing looks less like effort.2. This seems to say that the life of communion with God is not a long series of vapid and unemotional hours, a dead level of mechanical and spiritless employments, but a life that has rare and glorious experiences, holy aspirations, ennobling thoughts, ecstatic emotions, spirit-stirring hopes.1. What do you say, Christian tradesman you upon whom God hath laid the responsibilities of home and family you Christian citizen-you whom the arrows of affliction have wounded you proclaimer of the Lord's message?2. This is the religion of the Bible: is it not a noble thing? "THEY THAT WAIT UPON THE LORD SHALL RENEW THEIR STRENGTH."1. Isaiah 40:31 Chuck Smith: "GOD'S STRENGTH" Intro: Isaiah called miniature Bible, 66 chapters, 66 books. For this we need power. Is this really so? God is opposed to idols, that all may know he is the only fit witness to himself. THE HAPPY RESULT OF THIS RENEWAL OF STRENGTH.(J. Cooke.The Lord's people must wait 1. The man who waits upon God has three cardinal qualities which above all others will tend to the conquest of the world buoyancy of spirits, activity, and perseverance; the man who can command these is the man who will win.(F. 1. who can bring life out of decay? Hast thou not known? They shall "mount up," etc.(J. Halsey.We find the same idea also in the New Testament with spiritual applications. 4th Sunday of Easter. It implies the existence of an invincible faith, which nothing can destroy, although for a moment it may be disturbed. So, what a human being often needs is just motive power. The whole world is God's; the heaven, even the heaven of heavens are the Lord's and he reigneth among the children of men. This is a pace which is very requisite for the Christian. Learn to come into blessed fellowship with God. "They shall run," etc. It expresses a solid endurability such as belongs to a stiff piece of oak that never bends and never breaks under heavy pressure. It was his religious observance of the laws of the Nazarite which occasioned his extraordinary power. But without God, without true hope.(W. Exuberance of holy feeling is not a thing to be manufactured. He stopped running because he was tired. The Cherubim and Seraphim show that images are not fit to represent divine mysteries. Horton, D. D.)Waiting in patienceT. What has he to trust in for the continuance of the hope that these desires shall be gratified? "Walk without fainting."2. We traverse the solid unromantic ground of principle, while the ghost of many a shattered illusion haunts our path. Surely there must be some mistake. THE GENERAL PROPOSITION. It was the experience of its necessity and efficacy that made Luther what he was, and G. 4 [There all the heavenly hosts are seen, In shining ranks they move, And drink immortal vigour in, With wonder and with love. Alexander, D. D.)Condition and conductEvan H. Hopkins, B. A.Every river needs a channel; and the wider and deeper the channel the fuller and more copious the stream, provided the waters are inexhaustible. And look at that time when He has the burden of the world upon Him. "The joy of the Lord is your strength."III. There is something very grand in these august and mysterious voices which call one to another in the opening verses of this chapter. This large world, the spiritual, into which Isaiah has ushered us, includes all worlds, for it is as limitless as its Ruler. There is the soaring Godward, and there is the common drudgery of daily walk and conversation, the practical common life.(T. "They shall walk, and not faint" For we cannot always be in the enjoyment of swift progress. "I will run in the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart."3. We are not to devote all our lives to lonely musing. We may be summoned to a post of great responsibility, to the performance of arduous duty. Purer air.2. L. Wiseman, B. 1The ConsolationComfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. But it is possible to rise by another kind of power. But it is possible to rise by another kind of power. But the Christian has had that care upon his heart daffy, and he knows how to bear it, and before whom to lay it. A change from one measure of strength to another. )Waiting upon the LordT. "Every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure. Not only in the immediate exercises of religion, but at all times the Christian will be animated by a spirit of devotion. Is this really so? Hocart. Yet I venture to question whether such a discourse would strike the central teaching of the prophet. A. WE ARE ASSURED OF THE BENEFIT RESULTING FROM THE DISCHARGE OF THIS DUTY. THE DUTY HERE RECOMMENDED. The eagle is a bird that soars upwards towards heaven: so is the Christian to mount upwards in holy contemplation. That God will "renew our strength." To walk we want something like continuous, sustained evenness of conduct, progressing quietly and steadily day by day in the common round of life; not impulsive, not capricious, not changeable; without show, humble, and always the same. Hours of holy exultation are necessary for hours of patient plodding, waiting and working. Knight, M. A.I. By waiting on the Lord the stream flows into its appointed bed. We rejoice in the earliest flower because it is the earliest, and we rejoice in the latest flower because it is the latest; but do what you will, you cannot make the aster blossom in spring. Your stalk may be a broken one, and your petals may be shrivelled, but by waiting upon the Lord you shall renew your strength.II. "Waiting on the Lord" by prayer has the same effect on them that it has on an empty bucket to set it under a rain-spout. And when He Calls us home, He who sits upon the circle of the heavens, and sees all the sorrow of this world as you and I can never see it, bids us "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Our Lord trusted to faith to subdue humanity. How much of meaning is couched in those two words, "My people!" Clearer vision.3. But the Christian has had that care upon his heart daffy, and he knows how to bear it, and before whom to lay it. Greed, unrighteousness, sensuality, may appear to be more stable than granite. The meaning is obviously, They, all depend upon Thee; men and beasts alike.2. Did he not in his impatience lift up the standard of freedom forty years too soon? And all our waiting upon God will depend upon one thing the knowledge that we have of Him. It is in the period of youth that we have our ambitious dreams, and take our higher flights. And indeed that is a great part of wisdom, to bring forth everything in its season, to discern when and where, and to whom it is pertinent and edifying, to speak such and such truths. Isaiah 40:31 Sermon Notes, Illustrations, etc >30 pages of material! Ward Beecher.What are some of the methods by which men, in the Divine economy, advance in spiritual impulse, and rise permanently higher?1. The Bible speaks about waiting patiently, and also about waiting quietly. xl. 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