“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:31
For many of us, this scripture is not strange. You may have heard it sung in a song or spoken as encouragement, yet if we are honest, it often doesn’t sink in. We miss the weight it carries, the depth of its implications, and the power of its message.
One of the best ways to give the Holy Spirit room to breathe on scripture is to pause on every word, verse by verse until it ties up in your heart. If you read in a hurry, you may grasp the macro meaning but miss the micro truths where the richest blessings are embedded. That’s why reading the whole Bible matters; every verse builds on another, layer upon layer, precept upon precept, until you see how perfectly woven and consistent God’s Word really is.
The Context of Comfort
Isaiah 40 speaks to a people who were headed for a dark season. Exile was coming. Their rebellion had set certain consequences in motion, yet God, in His kindness, didn’t leave them without hope. Through Isaiah, He spoke comfort long before their hardship began. Just like David prophetically sang of Jesus centuries before He walked the earth, Isaiah’s words stood as a promise: When the suffering comes, God’s strength will meet you there.
Isn’t that still true for us? God often gives us words ahead of our valleys. Promises we can hold onto when shadows grow long. It may be a verse, a whisper in prayer, or a sermon you once brushed past, but when the storm comes, that Word becomes your anchor.
The God Who Does Not Grow Weary
Isaiah 40 is one long song of comfort and majesty. It climaxes with a declaration of God’s greatness:
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” (Isaiah 40:28–31)
Israel needed to hear this. After the crushing weight of foreign oppressors, after nights of wondering if God had abandoned them, they needed to know that their Creator had not grown weary and had not lost sight of them.
And we need it too, because there are times when our suffering feels so great that we begin to wonder if even God can deliver us. But the truth is, He can. He always can.
You know, there is a way a man can be so oppressed, so chained, so bound in suffering and iniquity that he barely has faith or hope left that even God can deliver him. Think about the man at the pool of Bethesda. John 5:5–6 says “One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’”
His response wasn’t filled with faith, it was heavy with disappointment. He had waited and hoped for so long that someone would help him into the water when it was stirred, but no one ever did. By the time Jesus Himself stood before him, he had almost lost the capacity to believe again.
And yet, that day, Jesus spoke life into him and strength returned! His story reminds us that even when hope feels faint, God’s Word and presence are enough to lift us up again!
Mounting Up with Wings
Here is the promise:
Even when the strong stumble
Even when youth fades, those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength!
They will soar on wings like eagles
They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint!
To mount up with wings like eagles is not just poetic, it’s a picture of perspective. The storm may rage, but the eagle soars above it.
Renewal begins when you exalt God above your trial or situation, when you choose to lift your eyes above the trial before you.
It’s a perspective shift: it is realizing that God has always been in charge, that even the enemy has limits, and that nothing has free rein over your life outside of God’s allowance.
This is how your strength is renewed.
This is how you keep walking when you feel faint.
This is how you rise again; by hoping in the Lord.
A Prayer for Today
Lord, I confess that sometimes I grow weary.
Sometimes the weight feels too heavy, and hope feels far.
But today I choose to lift my eyes to You, the everlasting God who never grows tired.
Breathe Your strength into my weary heart.
Teach me to soar above the storm, to run with endurance, and to walk with unwavering faith.
Amen.
