Twenty-First Day.

WAITING ON GOD:

The Almighty One.

'They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with eagle wings; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.'—Isa. 40: 31.

WAITING always partakes of the character of our thoughts of the one on whom we wait. Our waiting on God will depend greatly on our faith of what He is. In our text we have the close of a passage in which God reveals Himself as the Everlasting and Almighty One. It is as that revelation enters our soul that the waiting will become the spontaneous expression of what we know Him to be—a God altogether most worthy to be waited upon.

Listen to the words: 'Why sayest thou, O Jacob, my way is hid from the Lord?' Why 102 speakest thou as if God does not hear or help?

'Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the Everlasting One, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?' So far from it, 'He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths'—'the glory of young men is their strength'—'even the youths shall faint, and the young men shall utterly fall:' all that is accounted strong with man shall come to nought. 'But they that wait on the Lord,' on the Everlasting One, who does not faint, neither is weary, they 'shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and,'—listen now, they shall be strong with the strength of God, and, even as He, 'shall not be weary; they shall walk and,' even as He, 'not faint.'

Yes, 'they shall mount up with wings as eagles.' You know what eagles' wings mean. The eagle is the king of birds, it soars the highest into the heavens. Believers are to live a heavenly life, in the very Presence and Love and Joy of God. They are to live where God lives; they need God's strength to rise there. To them that wait on Him it shall be given.

You know how the eagles' wings are obtained. 103 Only in one way—by the eagle birth. You are born of God. You have the eagles' wings. You may not have known it: you may not have used them; but God can and will teach you to use them.

You know how the eagles are taught the use of their wings. See yonder cliff rising a thousand feet out of the sea. See high up a ledge on the rock, where there is an eagle's nest with its treasure of two young eaglets. See the mother bird come and stir up her nest, and with her beak push the timid birds over the precipice. See how they flutter and fall and sink toward the depth. See now (Deut. 32: 11) 'how she fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings,' and so, as they ride upon her wings, brings them to a place of safety. And so she does once and again, each time casting them out over the precipice, and then again taking and carrying them. 'So the Lord alone did lead him.' Yes, the instinct of that eagle mother was God's gift, a single ray of that love in which the Almighty trains His people to mount as on eagles' wings.

He stirs up your nest. He disappoints your hopes. He brings down your confidence. He makes you fear and tremble, as all your strength 104 fails, and you feel utterly weary and helpless. And all the while He is spreading His strong wings for you to rest your weakness on, and offering His everlasting Creator-strength to work in you. And all He asks is that you should sink down in your weariness and wait on Him; and allow Him in His Jehovah-strength to carry you as you ride upon the wings of His Omnipotence.

Dear child of God! I pray you, lift up your eyes, and behold your God! Listen to Him who says that He faints not, neither is weary, who promiseth that you too shall not faint or be weary, who asketh nought but this one thing, that you should wait on Him. And let your answer be, With such a God, so mighty, so faithful, so tender,

'My soul, wait thou only upon God!'