“But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.”ISAIAH 40:31 · BSB · READ ISAIAH 40:27–31 →
The God who never grows weary gives fresh strength to those who wait on Him.
You know the feeling. The gas light has been on for twenty miles. You are praying your way to the next exit. That is how a lot of us live. Running on fumes. Tired when we wake up, tired at lunch, tired when we finally collapse at night. Not just body tired. Soul tired. Tired of fighting the same battle. Tired of waiting for things to change. Tired of being strong for everybody else.
Isaiah 40 was written to tired people. Many scholars think these words were aimed at God's people in a long season of exile and hardship, people who felt like God had forgotten them. They were not lazy. They were worn down. And God, through Isaiah, spoke some of the most hopeful words in all of Scripture.
Some of you have Isaiah 40:31 on a coffee mug or a wall plaque. Today I want to take it off the mug and put it into your heart. Let's look at the whole paragraph, because the promise at the end only makes sense when you see the God behind it.
The Lie of the Weary Heart
ISAIAH 40:27 →Isaiah starts by putting his finger on what God's people were saying. He asks why Jacob and Israel keep saying, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my claim is ignored by my God”? In other words, God does not see where I am, and He does not care about my situation.
That is what weariness does. It does not just drain your energy. It distorts your view of God. When you are exhausted, you start believing things that are not true. Nobody cares. Nothing will change. God has moved on. Notice that God does not shame them for feeling this way. He asks them why. He invites them to examine what they are telling themselves.
Notice too that God calls them Jacob and Israel. Those are covenant names. Jacob was the man who wrestled with God and came away limping, and God renamed him Israel. Even while they feel forgotten, God uses the names that remind them they belong to Him. The tired heart says, I am hidden. God says, you are Mine.
Picture thisPicture a nurse finishing her third twelve-hour shift in a row. On the drive home she cries for no reason. She thinks, nobody notices what I do, nobody would care if I quit, God is probably tired of hearing from me. None of it is true. Her patients' families have thanked her. Her coworkers lean on her. And God has seen every step. But exhaustion has a way of whispering lies, and when you are tired enough, the lies start to sound like the truth.
- Weariness drains your energy and distorts your view of God.
- God does not shame tired people; He asks them to look again.
- Your feelings of being forgotten are real, but they are not the final truth.
- God still calls you by your covenant name.
The God Who Never Runs Down
ISAIAH 40:28 →God answers the lie with a question. “Do you not know? Have you not heard?” Then He reminds them of what they already knew but had forgotten. “The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.”
Look at those four truths. He is everlasting. He was before your trouble began, and He will be after it ends. He is the Creator of the ends of the earth. There is no corner of the world, and no corner of your life, that is outside His reach. He will not grow tired or weary. He never needs a nap or a vacation. And His understanding is beyond searching out. You do not have to understand what He is doing. He understands.
Just before this, in verse 26, Isaiah tells them to look up at the stars. God leads them out by number and calls each one by name, and not one is missing. If God keeps track of every star, do you really think He has lost track of you?
This is the cure for weary thinking. Not more effort. Better theology. When you get a bigger view of God, you get a right-sized view of your problems. That is why it matters what you feed your mind when you are tired. If all you take in is bad news, endless scrolling, and your own worried thoughts, your view of God will shrink. Isaiah keeps asking, do you not know, have you not heard? The answer is to keep hearing. Open the Word, even a few verses. Sing truth in the car. Let God remind you who He is, again and again, until your weary heart starts to believe it.
- God is everlasting, before and after your hard season.
- He is Creator of the ends of the earth, so nothing is outside His reach.
- He never grows tired, so He never gives up on you.
- You do not have to understand His ways; He understands.
Strength for the Faint
ISAIAH 40:29–30 →Then comes the turn. “He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak.” The God who never gets tired does not keep His strength to Himself. He gives it away. And look who He gives it to. Not the strong. Not the people who have it all together. The faint. The weak. The ones running on empty.
Verse 30 is honest. “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.” The strongest people in society, the young and healthy, still run out. Human strength has an expiration date. Coffee wears off. Adrenaline crashes. Willpower runs dry. If you are trying to get through life on your own power, you will eventually stumble.
And here is the good news inside that bad news. Your weakness qualifies you for His strength. You do not have to get strong to come to God. You come to God because you are not strong.
That is the gospel. Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Jesus Himself knew weariness. John tells us that Jesus, weary from His journey, sat down by a well. The Creator who never grows tired became a man who did, so that He could carry our sin to the cross. He died for us, rose again, and now gives His strength to all who come to Him by faith.
Picture thisThink of a phone at one percent battery. You can turn off the apps, dim the screen, and put it on low power mode. That might buy you a few more minutes. But nothing you do with the phone will charge it. It has to be plugged into a power source outside itself. A lot of Christians are living in low power mode, trying to stretch the last bit of their own strength. God is not asking you to dim the screen. He is asking you to plug in.
- God gives His strength to the faint, not the self-sufficient.
- Even the strongest human strength runs out.
- Your weakness qualifies you for His strength.
- Jesus knew weariness and invites the weary to find rest in Him.
Waiting That Lifts You Up
ISAIAH 40:31 →Now the promise. “But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.”
The Hebrew word for wait here is qavah. The basic meaning is to wait for, to look for, to expect. Strong's dictionary suggests it may come from the idea of binding together, perhaps by twisting, like strands twisted into a cord. We should not build too much on that. But the main idea is clear. This is not sitting in a waiting room flipping through old magazines. It is hopeful expectation. It is looking to God, leaning on God, and trusting that He will act.
And the word for renew carries the idea of change or exchange. Those who wait on the LORD will find their strength changed. Their weakness meets His power. Then look at the order: soar, run, walk. Sometimes God gives you eagle days, when you rise above it all. Sometimes He gives you running days, when you have energy to push hard. And sometimes the miracle is just that you keep walking and do not faint. Do not despise the walking days. Putting one foot in front of the other in faith is a gift of His strength too.
And notice the eagle. Eagles do not soar by flapping harder. They spread their wings and let rising currents of warm air lift them. That is a beautiful picture of waiting on the LORD. You stop flapping in panic and start resting on a power that is not your own. Weary people need to hear that. You do not have to work up your own lift. You have to trust the One who lifts. How do you wait on the LORD? You pray. You open His Word. You gather with His people. You rest, really rest, trusting that the world will keep spinning without you. And you keep looking to Him. As the psalm says, “Wait patiently for the LORD; be strong and courageous. Wait patiently for the LORD!”
- To wait on the LORD is hopeful, expectant trust, not passive idleness.
- Waiting on Him changes our weakness for His strength.
- Some days you soar, some days you run, and some days you just keep walking.
- Prayer, Scripture, church, and real rest are ways we wait on Him.
So many of us are running on empty. We are trying to fill our tanks with more effort, more caffeine, more busyness, and it is not working. Isaiah points us to a better source. The everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, who never grows tired, gives strength to the weak.
And the clearest picture of that God is Jesus Christ. He was weary at the well and crushed at the cross for our sins. He rose again on the third day, and He still says, come to Me and I will give you rest. If you have never come to Him, that is your first step. Not trying harder. Trusting Him. Salvation is by grace through faith, a gift for empty hands.
And believer, if you are worn out today, stop running on fumes. Wait on the LORD. Look to Him in hope. Some days you will soar. Some days you will run. And on the hardest days, by His grace, you will keep walking and you will not faint.
- Read Isaiah 40 in one sitting this week and underline every description of who God is.
- Set aside fifteen minutes each day this week to wait on the LORD: pray, read a psalm, and sit quietly before Him.
- Identify one lie your weary heart has been telling you, and write a truth from Isaiah 40 next to it.
- Take a real Sabbath rest this week. Put the phone down for a few hours and trust God to run the world.
- Encourage one tired friend this week with Isaiah 40:29 and an offer to help carry a load.
- What has been draining your strength lately? Is it more body tired or soul tired?
- What lies does weariness tend to tell you about God? How does Isaiah 40:27-28 answer them?
- Why do you think God answers weariness by pointing to His greatness first?
- What is the difference between waiting on the LORD and simply waiting?
- How do the soaring, running, and walking days show up in your life?
- How does Jesus being weary at the well encourage you as you come to Him?
Everlasting God, You are the Creator of the ends of the earth, and You never grow tired or weary. We confess that we are tired. We have been running on empty, trying to live on our own strength, and believing lies about You. Forgive us. Thank You for Jesus, who knew weariness, who carried our sins to the cross, and who rose again to give us rest. Give power to the faint and strength to the weak in this room. Teach us to wait on You with hope. On the soaring days, keep us humble. On the running days, keep us close. And on the walking days, keep us from fainting. In Jesus' name, amen.