“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength…” —Isaiah 40:31

In my most exhausting days I find myself feeling a lot like Bilbo Baggins in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring:

“I’m old, Gandalf. I know I don’t look it but I’m beginning to feel it in my heart. I feel thin… sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”

Lord of the Rings

Maybe you’ve found yourself feeling that way sometimes… worn down, weary, and stretched much too thin. The demands of responsibilities and relationships outweigh the resources banked in your soul. Tiredness is natural, and our life’s work and God-given assignments will inevitably drain us at times (just ask all the mothers you know). But sometimes our fatigue can come from a place of not abiding in Christ’s sufficiency in the daily stuff of life.

We could be burning the candle at both ends for approval of others, misaligned ambition, fear of failure, or that lure of trying to match (perform) those “appearances” we are seeing in everyone else’s social media platforms. One of the surest ways to deplete yourself today is to get caught up in trying to run a race you were never meant to run.

Regardless of where the exhaustion comes from, there is good news for the worn down and tired. God has promised, “I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish” (Jeremiah 31:25).

Isaiah 40 was written to a weary people who likely had some trouble imagining a bright, hopeful, and energetic future. Isaiah’s call went out to comfort those who had been exiled from their homeland. The prophet ascribes the supremacy of God over every pagan religion to which many of Isaiah’s contemporaries had succumbed, and El Elyon’s sovereignty over the cultural gods with which the exiles were surrounded. The “Holy One” of Israel is declared incomparable in “the greatness of his might” (v. 26).

Such a God will never forget even one of his people, and Isaiah has a word for those who would question if their way is “hidden,” “disregarded,” or even forgotten by their God (v. 27)…

Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

    the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

    his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint,

    and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary,

    and young men shall fall exhausted;

but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

    they shall walk and not faint.

(Isaiah 40:28-31)

In verse 28, the statement that the Creator “does not faint or grow weary” suggests that there is more to come for the suffering exiles. God has not given up on Israel. He isn’t done yet. He will finish what He has started in her (Philippians 1:6), and those “waiting for the Lord” shall find endless supplies of fresh strength and vitality. The Hebrew phrase here means to hope, to anticipate, to eagerly look for with expectation, and to trust. Think about what that might look like for you as you seek to abide in Him this week.

PRAYER

Everlasting God, you are incomparable in your greatness and able to give strength to the weary and power to the faint. Holy Spirit, teach us to wait upon you for that daily sufficiency in running without getting weary, and eagerly expecting your presence always before us.

Questions for Reflection and/or Group Discussion

1. What sorts of circumstances cause contemporary people to become weak and weary?
2. What wonder of nature did the Holy One use as an example of His power? (Isaiah 40:25-26)
3. How did God respond to Judah’s assertion that He had forgotten them? (vv. 27-28) What were God’s special promises to the weak and weary? (vv. 29-31)
4. Why is it important for us to remember that God is infinitely higher than we imagine ourselves to be?
5. What will it look like for you to “wait for the Lord” this week?

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The post Bilbo Baggins and the Exhausted Soul appeared first on Jimmy Larche.

Frodo and Sam are in Osgiliath. It’s under evil attack. Frodo is becoming entranced by the power of the Ring and he appears incoherent as he staggers toward a Nazgûl. Seemingly resolved to give up on the fight to continue his mission, Frodo offers the Ring to the Nazgûl and nearly puts it on. This is when his good friend Sam comes to the rescue, pulls him away from the evil entity, and saves the story. They fall to the ground. An infuriated and delusional Frodo takes his sword and points it towards Sam’s throat. After a few seconds Frodo comes back to reality, drops his sword and says, “I can’t do this Sam.” Sam’s response is true not only of Frodo’s journey, but also of your story:

“I know. It’s all wrong. By rights, we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you that meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.”

Frodo then asks, “What are we holding on to Sam?” Sam holds out hope: “That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”

Sometimes it feels like you don’t have what it takes to finish your own story. It feels as if everything is wrong and “by rights,” you shouldn’t even be here. Heaviness comes over you. The scars remind you of how far you have come… but how far you still have to go. Evil is set against you. Hell is bent on destroying you. Adversaries have made your demise their personal mission in life. Friends fail you. Close friends betray you. Failures haunt you. Regret taunts you. And amidst the whirlwind of all this pain, your spiritual nemesis causes you to question the meaningfulness of your mission and doubt the redemptive value of your life.

Remember that the stories worth telling are stories of desperate accounts where “folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.”

This was Frodo’s story. This is the story of the Bible. This is the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. And this is your story.

It’s in times like this we all need a Samwise – a trustworthy friend who can break through all the madness, love us through the doubtful times, and encourage us to finish our race.

Dear friend: Your story derives its value not despite your pain and suffering, but because of it. It’s a story worth telling… and it’s darn well worth fighting for!

The post Like Frodo, your story is worth telling… and darn well worth fighting for! appeared first on Jimmy Larche.

Did you know that 90 percent of people who enter vocational ministry will end up in another field? Truth is, vocational ministry is not only an arduous vocation, it’s a brutal spiritual war zone; a war zone that’s sending countless ministry leaders and pastors across America into premature retirements… piling up casualties of Kingdom laborers.

I want all of my pastor friends and those who are in vocational ministry to read the following article by John Ortberg. We need to constantly be reminded of the divine, sacred, and eternal implications of our calling. If we are to finish strong, we must guard our “calling” on a daily basis. Spend adequate time with the Caller, get the right people on your team, surround yourself with people who understand your calling and will fight for you. Fuel your calling with inspiration. Your calling matters… you must post a sentry around it!

Thank you W. Ryan Melson for posting this earlier in the week.

“But you have been chosen,” Gandalf says to Frodo. “And you must therefore use such strength and hearts and wits as you have.” You have been chosen. I don’t know if you (or I) am in exactly the perfect fitting job. But that’s not the issue. You have been chosen… And this sense of having been called—the worthiness of it, the glorious goodness of a life lived beyond an individual’s agenda—is a precious thing. It is sometimes subverted into grandiosity. It is perhaps more often lost in the ministry of the mundane. It needs to be guarded… People with the strongest and healthiest sense of calling are not obsessed with their calling. They are preoccupied with the Caller. With a clear vision of a good and competent and loving God before me, the significance of my own tiny part in his world is safely and manageably held.

– John Ortberg

Read the full article here.

The post John Ortberg: “Guard Your Calling, Frodo” | Leadership Journal appeared first on Jimmy Larche.