WAITING ON THE LORD
By C.I. Scofield
"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."
— Isaiah 40:31

Let us confess at once that these blessings are not usual in the lives of Christ-
ians. As a matter of fact we run and are weary, we walk and do faint. The
wings of our soul do not habitually beat the upper air. On the face of it, it is
very simple. There is a condition entirely within the reach of every Christian,
whatever may be his age or environment, and then resultant blessings made
sure by the "shall" of Almighty God:
"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."
— Isaiah 40:31

If there is one condition thus performed, the resultant blessings are sure;
obviously then the absence of the blessing proves that we do not meet the
condition. Perhaps we have never stopped to read it very carefully. We like
certain promises of Scripture largely because we feel there is something strong,
beautiful and triumphant in them, but we do not really consider what they
mean. What does the Scripture mean by "waiting on the Lord?" Everything
hinges on that. It is the sole condition. First of all, waiting upon God is not
praying.
Praying is petitioning God for something. Praying is "supplication
with thanksgiving,"
— Philippians 4:6

It has its own great and unique place in the Christian life, but it is not waiting
upon the Lord. Three Hebrew words are translated "wait" in this connection,
and three passages may serve to illustrate their meaning.
"Truly my soul waiteth
upon God."
— Psalms 62:1. The literal translation of this is "Truly my soul is
silent upon God." That is not prayer, it is not worship. It is the soul, in utter
hush and quietness, casting itself upon God.

Take another illustrative passage.
"These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest
give them their meat in due season."
— Psalms 104:27. Here the word is the
same, but it implies both dependence and expectation — a faith that silently
reaches out to take hold upon God, and which has its expectation from God.

Then
"Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting
at the posts of my doors."
—Proverbs 8:34. The thought there is of a servant
and his master. He has no service just at that moment, but he "waits" at the
door, knowing that at any moment the door may swing back and the master
may say, "My servant, go; do this or that."
It is the attitude of readiness, of
obedience.

Now I think we are ready to gather these passages into a definition of what
waiting upon God means. To wait upon God is to be silent that He may speak,
expecting all things from Him, and girded for instant, unquestioning obedience
to the slightest movement of His will. That is waiting upon God. All the spiritual
senses alive, alert, expectant, separated unto Him, His servant and soldier —
waiting. It is not the waiting of an idler, it is not the waiting of a dreamer. It is
the quiet waiting of one who is girt and ready, one who looks upon life as a
battle-field and a sphere for service, who has one master and but one, to whom
he looks for everything, from whom alone he expects anything. This is waiting
upon God according to the Scriptures. Now, glorious blessings depend upon this
attitude toward God. Are we waiting? Are we silent upon God? Is our expect-
ation from Him, or from ourselves, or from the world? If our expectation is
truly from Him, and we are willing to yield Him an immediate obedience, then
we are waiting upon God. Then the four blessings of the text must follow,
because God says they shall. Let us look at these blessings.

"They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength." — Isaiah 40:31.
The word "renew" rendered literally is "change" — they shall change their
strength. It is a word used to denote a change of garments. They shall lay aside
their strength and put on, as a garment, strength from God. This whole fortieth
chapter of Isaiah is a series of contrasts between the frailty and feebleness of
man and the strength and greatness of God. Yet man is a being who fancies that
he has some strength. And so indeed he has in the sphere of the natural, but it
is a strength which utterly breaks down in the sphere of the Christian life.
The
problem is to rid ourselves of self-strength that God may clothe us with
His own strength; and this is the first blessing promised to those who
"wait upon the LORD." — Isaiah 40:31. How does God effect this? I do not
know, but I know that somehow when we are waiting upon Him, our strength,
which after all is perfect weakness, is laid aside, and divine hands clothe us with
the strength of God. We do change our strength.

We now come logically to that great second blessing promised to the waiters
upon the Lord:
"They shall mount up with wings as eagles." — Isaiah 40:31.
What does that mean? Why as eagles? Why not with wings as doves? I think it
is because the eagle is the only bird that goes so high that he is lost to sight in
the upper heights. Think of some of the peculiarities of the eagle. He is the
most solitary of birds. Did you ever see or hear of a flock of eagles?  You may
some-times see two together, but very rarely.  The eagle has to do with great
things, mountains and heights and depths. An eagle can also be very still. No
creature holds such reserves of quietness; there is no restlessness in him. There
is the repose of perfect power. He can be quiet when it is time to be quiet. But
when the sun rises and his eye catches the first ray, you may see him stretch his
mighty wings, launch out over the abyss and begin that tremendous spiral flight
up, up, up, higher and higher, until he is lost to sight; and all day, on balanced
wing, he is there in the vast upper realm of light, above all storms, in the great
tranquility of the upper spaces. That is mounting up with wings as eagles. To be
up there, as we might say, with God.
No Christian ever comes into God's
best things who does not, upon the God-ward side of his life, learn to walk
alone with God.
Lot may dwell in Sodom and vex his righteous soul with the
filthy conversation of the wicked, but God will have Abraham up in Hebron
upon the heights. It is Abraham whom He visits and to whom He tells His
secrets. Moses, learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, must go forty years
into the desert to be alone with God. Paul, who knew the Greek learning and
had also sat at the feet of Gamaliel, must go into Arabia and learn the desert life
with God. Before God uses a man greatly, He isolates him. He gives him a
separating experience; and when it is over, those about him, who are no less
loved than before, are no longer depended upon. He realizes that he is
separated unto God, that the wings of his soul have learned to beat the upper
air, and that God has shown him unspeakable things. If we mount up with
wings as eagles we shall often grieve the judicious, and must count upon some
experience of misunderstanding; but we can keep sweet about it. We may avoid
this. We may nest low enough to be understood by the carnal, turn sedately the
ecclesiastical crank, and be approved; but if we take the upper air, we must,
like the eagle, go alone. That is precisely our calling. Christ wants each one of
us separated unto Himself.

Hear:
"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above." —
Colossians 3:1

How far above?
"Where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." — Colossians 3:1.

Stretch the pinions of your soul, remember that you belong up there, and beat
the lower air and rise and rise until you are with the enthroned One.

A man had a young eagle which he put in the hen yard with a clog on one of its
feet, so that it could not fly, and there it grew up. At last, when the man was
going to move away from that part of the country, he decided to liberate his
eagle. He took off the clog, but the eagle went hopping about just the same. So
very early one morning he took the eagle and set him upon the coping of the
wall just as the sun was rising. The eagle opened his eyes and looked for the
first time at the rising sun. Then, lifting himself up he stretched his mighty
wings, and with one scream launched himself into the upper air. He belonged
up there all the while, and had simply been living in the wrong place.

Now another blessing, the third:
"They shall run, and not be weary." — Isaiah
40:31. That seems like an anti-climax, as does the fourth blessing:
"They shall
walk, and not faint."
— Isaiah 40:31

What! must we come down and run and walk here on this stupid, prosaic earth
after these eagle flights? Yes, precisely. The eagle flight is unto that.
We go up
there that we may serve down here
, and we never can serve down here
according to God's thought of service, until we trace the spirals of the upper air
and have learned to be alone in the silent spaces with God. It is only the man
who comes down from interviews with God who can touch human lives with
the power of God. Yes, we must run down here, and walk down here, but only
in the degree in which we know the inspiration of the upper air can we either
run without weariness, or walk without fainting. What is the "walk"? It is the
everyday of life. It is the getting breakfast, dressing the children, getting them
off to school; it is going down and opening the store; it is going out and feeding
the herds; it is going into the study and opening the Word of God. It is whatever
our appointed task may be. It is doing this all day, in heat and cold, dull days
and bright days — the common life. It is this, the everyday walk, that tests and
tries. Far easier is it to gather one's energies for a swift run sometimes than it is
to walk. But we have to walk; we are made to walk. We live a common life, a
life of everyday duty, plain, prosaic and unbeautiful. But we may
"walk, and
not faint"
— Isaiah 40:31 under the wear and petty vexations and frictions of
everyday life,
only on condition that we have been "waiting upon God."
The man who does that will be a reservoir of sweetness, quietness and power.


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Further Reading:
THE IMPORTANCE OF DAILY LIVING  By CA Coates
ARE YOU A "ROCKING HORSE" CHRISTIAN?
THE WORK OF CHRIST -  The Only Resting Place
GRACE UPON GRACE - John 1:16
PETER ON THE WATER - A PATH OF FAITH
TRUST IN GOD - HOPE IN GOD
THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD - Devotional
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