Pastor Cal Lord's Recent Sermons
Walking When It Hurts
Isaiah 40:27-31 February 9, 2003
God will take care of you! That is a comforting thought! It is a basic understanding that gives
some ummph to our faith. We have a God who cares for us and looks after us. He is a guardian
at the door and a secure stronghold in the storms of life. Take away this sense of security and
you lose some of the appeal of our faith. Well this past week I spent time in the hospital, praying
for people who had suddenly lost loved ones and hearing reports from people anxiously waiting
for test results. And although hope was flowing freely, there was also a sense of uncertainty,
doubt and even fear.
Now the truth is that we don’t like to talk about our doubts, especially when we are here in
church. We are supposed to be strong in our faith. We are supposed to be examples to the rest
of the world. But you and I know... that there are moments and even seasons where doubt,
wonder and unbelief start to creep in.
Shortly after September 11 a woman was struggling with what it all meant, especially since so
many innocent people had died. And she told me that it really shook her faith. She wondered
how she could ever believe in a loving God again, in light of this senseless event.
A few years ago I was talking to a man who had long abandoned the idea that there was a God
who loved him. He had been through a terrible divorce. His wife left him for another man. The
church he was going to basically kicked him out and he decided then and there that the god he
learned about as a child could not exist.
When I was just beginning in ministry, I visited a woman whose son was killed when he was just
a toddler. At 80 years old, she told me that she continued to fight with a God she didn’t really
believe in. She said it was probably just empty words, but she kept asking why and there had not
been an answer for sixty years.
Oh yes, we are here today because we believe, we hope that the words of faith are true, but I
don’t believe that there is anyone here this morning that can honestly say that his/her life as a
Christian has only been “ups.” I know that many have felt at times, that our faith in God has let
us down.
Our text from the Book of Isaiah addresses the subject of disappointment with God with a twist.
The twist is that it looks at it from God’s perspective.
What God is saying to us this morning, through the mouth of this prophet, is that we will find the
strength to walk when it hurts as we come to a proper understanding of who God is and we
willingly exchange our finite strength for His infinite power.
Isaiah begins by addressing an age-old problem. The people have wondered why God has turned
their back on them. They have all kinds of problems and their cries seem to fall on deaf ears.
This kind of wondering is as common now as it has been throughout history. Throughout the
scriptures and in the biographies of great men and women of the faith, we find countless
examples of believers in God who felt God had abandoned them. Even Jesus, the Son of God,
was not immune to feeling this way. As He hung on the cross of Calvary, Jesus cried out, “My
God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
As the people of Israel looked at their situation, they came to the same conclusion that you and I
often reach when we look at our own lives: “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is
disregarded by my God.”
Philip Yancey, in his book, Disappointment With God, suggests that there are three fundamental
questions that plague us as Christians, yet we are generally hesitant to ask them aloud. The three
questions are: Is God unfair? Is God silent? Is God hidden?
If we decide that God is unfair, God is silent, and God is hidden, then he is only a cruel cosmic
being who delights in our suffering. And for most of us, even if we are hurting and questioning,
this is too much to believe. So instead we begin to think that maybe we have it wrong. We begin
to believe that what the Bible has to say about a loving, nurturing, responding God is all false—
just wishful, “pie-in-the-sky” ramblings—because we don’t see the evidence we needed to
validate such claims. So we limp along, disappointed and lacking hope.
A second way to look at this problem is to assume that since God is not unfair, that He is not
silent, and that He is not hidden, the problem must be with us. There must be some sin or defect
in our faith that is the reason behind the suffering we are experiencing. God is chiding us or
trying to teach us some wonderful lesson. And generally, the supposed lesson that we are to
learn is simply to “have more faith and then the problems will disappear.” So people tend to walk
along, stumbling every so many steps, wondering when the curse will be lift and life will be good
again. They cry out, but begin to think that until they have paid their penance, they will have to
suffer.
But I want to say that the best choice for us is to believe that God is not unfair, that He is not
silent, and that He is not hidden, but that we simply do not understand all there is to know about
God or how He is working in the world, in general, or in our lives, in particular. Instead of
blaming ourselves for the troubles we experience, we leave room for the fact that God operates
on another plane—in an unseen realm—but that He is working just the same. This does not
minimize the troubles we experience, it simply gives us a different vantage point from which to
view our circumstances.
I believe that much of our disappointment with God stems from the fact that we have
misconceptions about who He is coupled with misinterpretations of many biblical promises. Let’s
look at the complaining Israelites. Isaiah begins by reminding the plaintiffs of whom it is that they
believe they have a case against. I love the way he introduces this section:
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
I imagine a hint of disbelief in the prophet’s tone as he asks these questions. The truths about
God that Isaiah was about to rehearse were not foreign to them—these were the things they
were taught to believe from their earliest days. What Isaiah is saying in essence to them is, “Have
you forgotten who God is?
He starts with the reality of God and His relationship to all things as their Creator. God has
always been and He will always be. Without God there is nothing. Remove God from the picture,
and the picture ceases to be. He is the One who created all things and in whom all things
continue to exist and have their being.
Then Isaiah speaks of the power and knowledge of God. God is an inexhaustible resource. He
has never experienced fatigue or weakness in even the most remote sense. And His knowledge,
we cannot even begin to imagine comprehending. God is a limitless source of knowledge.
Nothing escapes the mind of God or is unknown to Him.
Isaiah asks, Do you not know? Have you not heard? The problem that the people of Israel had in
relation to their knowledge of God is the same problem that we have today. We run the risk of
accumulating all the facts we can about God, but never consider the implications of those facts
and their application to our lives. We also assume that we have all the facts—that we understand
all there is to know about God.
In the final two verses of this passage, Isaiah gives us an ageless God’s timely answer to an age-
old problem. Weakness is a universal experience. Everybody experiences weakness. There is not
one person on the face of the planet who has never been tired and who will not be tired again.
I love the picture that Isaiah paints for us here to illustrate this point. Those of you who have
small children will identify with Isaiah’s words immediately. Kids are a bundle of energy and
never can get enough. Bounce a child on your knee and they’ll say “do it again.” Do it again and
they’ll say “More, more.” And kids can go on far longer than we can but even they will tire out.
Weakness is a perfect euphemism for describing the source of hurts we face, including our hurt
with God. When things don’t turn out the way we wanted them to, we become disappointed, and
more often than not our real disappointment is aimed at God.
Isaiah explains that weakness is a universal experience. Since weakness is part of life and the real
source of disappointments, then it is important that we clearly recognize the difference between
God and life. God is not life. Life is not God. Don’t confuse God with life. Bad things happen in
an imperfect world—that’s part of life.
In v. 31 we are given a word of hope to help us to make it through life’s disappointments: But
those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. We will become weary. We will meet with
life’s disappointments. But that is not the final word. There is strength offered to those who will
reach out and receive it.
It is important that we don’t jump to the mistaken conclusion that if we hope in the Lord, then he
will “zap” us with his supernatural strength and our disappointments will vanish in an instant. In
the last half of this verse, Isaiah describes the three ways in which God renews our strength.
The first phrase he uses to describe God’s renewal is: They will soar on wings like eagles. What
a magnificent picture! Isaiah chooses the image of one of the most majestic of all birds, the
eagle, to describe this special importation of strength by God. In a moment of ecstasy, God
showers His strength upon the weary one in such a manner that the individual is “lifted” above
life’s disappointments, like an eagle soaring on the wind.
When I am crying out to God for strength to overcome my weakness that is the kind of
experience I’m usually looking for. I want to be lifted above the pettiness and disappointments I
face here on a daily basis. I want God to intervene in my life in a spectacular fashion. Well the
truth is that it is rare to experience this kind of strength. Praise God we He chooses to meet us
in this way, but let’s not set our hope on that kind of experience—let’s set our hope in the Lord.
The second way in which God may choose to renew our strength is described in the phrase:
They will run and not grow weary.
I envision Isaiah describing the kind of strength that came upon the prophet Elijah when he was
enabled to outrun King Ahab who had a head start riding on his chariot (1 Kings 18:44-46). This
is another incredible visitation of God’s power upon an individual suffering from weakness.
If mounting up with eagle’s wings is the exception, then I would have to say that this would be
my second choice of how I would like to see God’s strength poured out on me when I am hit by
life’s disappointments. If I can’t fly like a bird, it wouldn’t be too bad to be “faster than a
speeding bullet.” But again this should be seen as only an occasional manifestation of God’s
renewing strength. It is not the normal way in which he works in our lives.
How does God’s strength usually come to us? Look at the final phrase, for in it we see the
climactic way in which we are renewed: They will walk and not be faint.
On the surface it doesn’t sound all that impressive. How can I refer to this as the “climactic way
in which we are renewed?” Think about it for a moment. Where is it most difficult to live? In the
place where you soar in the clouds? In the place where you can run on endlessly? Or in the place
where you simply walk and have to keep on walking? God’s strength usually comes to us in the
ordinary ways. We don’t live life soaring in the clouds or running in the fast lane—life is a matter
of persistent walking.
It is in the dark stretches of life that the most difficult thing to do is to continue to walk and not
quit. It is when we are faced with disappointing circumstances that we need the strength to just
“keep on keepin’ on” and not give up. God meets us where we live and renews our strength so
that we can continue to walk when we feel like we just can’t go on anymore. There won’t be
any great heights achieved or spectacular strength displayed, just the strength that we need to
make it through—the assurance of His presence with us and in us. It’s been a long, slow, painful
process, but I believe that I am finally coming around to under-standing that this is the type of
renewal I need and should long for.
There is but one appropriate response to disappointment with God and that is faith. Faith that will
continue to hope against all hope that God can be trusted even if there is no visible evidence to
support such a position. Faith that stands firm and shouts defiantly, “Yes, I will believe God and
His Word no matter what!”
Remember that we have an ageless God who is able to give us strength to overcome our
weaknesses. The answer that He gives us is to demonstrate unwavering faith in the face of our
disappointments and keep on believing that He will come and renew our strength so that we can
walk and not become weary. Disappointments will come, but God gives us the strength to keep
on walking even when it hurts.
Isaiah 40:27-31 February 9, 2003
God will take care of you! That is a comforting thought! It is a basic understanding that gives
some ummph to our faith. We have a God who cares for us and looks after us. He is a guardian
at the door and a secure stronghold in the storms of life. Take away this sense of security and
you lose some of the appeal of our faith. Well this past week I spent time in the hospital, praying
for people who had suddenly lost loved ones and hearing reports from people anxiously waiting
for test results. And although hope was flowing freely, there was also a sense of uncertainty,
doubt and even fear.
Now the truth is that we don’t like to talk about our doubts, especially when we are here in
church. We are supposed to be strong in our faith. We are supposed to be examples to the rest
of the world. But you and I know... that there are moments and even seasons where doubt,
wonder and unbelief start to creep in.
Shortly after September 11 a woman was struggling with what it all meant, especially since so
many innocent people had died. And she told me that it really shook her faith. She wondered
how she could ever believe in a loving God again, in light of this senseless event.
A few years ago I was talking to a man who had long abandoned the idea that there was a God
who loved him. He had been through a terrible divorce. His wife left him for another man. The
church he was going to basically kicked him out and he decided then and there that the god he
learned about as a child could not exist.
When I was just beginning in ministry, I visited a woman whose son was killed when he was just
a toddler. At 80 years old, she told me that she continued to fight with a God she didn’t really
believe in. She said it was probably just empty words, but she kept asking why and there had not
been an answer for sixty years.
Oh yes, we are here today because we believe, we hope that the words of faith are true, but I
don’t believe that there is anyone here this morning that can honestly say that his/her life as a
Christian has only been “ups.” I know that many have felt at times, that our faith in God has let
us down.
Our text from the Book of Isaiah addresses the subject of disappointment with God with a twist.
The twist is that it looks at it from God’s perspective.
What God is saying to us this morning, through the mouth of this prophet, is that we will find the
strength to walk when it hurts as we come to a proper understanding of who God is and we
willingly exchange our finite strength for His infinite power.
Isaiah begins by addressing an age-old problem. The people have wondered why God has turned
their back on them. They have all kinds of problems and their cries seem to fall on deaf ears.
This kind of wondering is as common now as it has been throughout history. Throughout the
scriptures and in the biographies of great men and women of the faith, we find countless
examples of believers in God who felt God had abandoned them. Even Jesus, the Son of God,
was not immune to feeling this way. As He hung on the cross of Calvary, Jesus cried out, “My
God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
As the people of Israel looked at their situation, they came to the same conclusion that you and I
often reach when we look at our own lives: “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is
disregarded by my God.”
Philip Yancey, in his book, Disappointment With God, suggests that there are three fundamental
questions that plague us as Christians, yet we are generally hesitant to ask them aloud. The three
questions are: Is God unfair? Is God silent? Is God hidden?
If we decide that God is unfair, God is silent, and God is hidden, then he is only a cruel cosmic
being who delights in our suffering. And for most of us, even if we are hurting and questioning,
this is too much to believe. So instead we begin to think that maybe we have it wrong. We begin
to believe that what the Bible has to say about a loving, nurturing, responding God is all false—
just wishful, “pie-in-the-sky” ramblings—because we don’t see the evidence we needed to
validate such claims. So we limp along, disappointed and lacking hope.
A second way to look at this problem is to assume that since God is not unfair, that He is not
silent, and that He is not hidden, the problem must be with us. There must be some sin or defect
in our faith that is the reason behind the suffering we are experiencing. God is chiding us or
trying to teach us some wonderful lesson. And generally, the supposed lesson that we are to
learn is simply to “have more faith and then the problems will disappear.” So people tend to walk
along, stumbling every so many steps, wondering when the curse will be lift and life will be good
again. They cry out, but begin to think that until they have paid their penance, they will have to
suffer.
But I want to say that the best choice for us is to believe that God is not unfair, that He is not
silent, and that He is not hidden, but that we simply do not understand all there is to know about
God or how He is working in the world, in general, or in our lives, in particular. Instead of
blaming ourselves for the troubles we experience, we leave room for the fact that God operates
on another plane—in an unseen realm—but that He is working just the same. This does not
minimize the troubles we experience, it simply gives us a different vantage point from which to
view our circumstances.
I believe that much of our disappointment with God stems from the fact that we have
misconceptions about who He is coupled with misinterpretations of many biblical promises. Let’s
look at the complaining Israelites. Isaiah begins by reminding the plaintiffs of whom it is that they
believe they have a case against. I love the way he introduces this section:
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
I imagine a hint of disbelief in the prophet’s tone as he asks these questions. The truths about
God that Isaiah was about to rehearse were not foreign to them—these were the things they
were taught to believe from their earliest days. What Isaiah is saying in essence to them is, “Have
you forgotten who God is?
He starts with the reality of God and His relationship to all things as their Creator. God has
always been and He will always be. Without God there is nothing. Remove God from the picture,
and the picture ceases to be. He is the One who created all things and in whom all things
continue to exist and have their being.
Then Isaiah speaks of the power and knowledge of God. God is an inexhaustible resource. He
has never experienced fatigue or weakness in even the most remote sense. And His knowledge,
we cannot even begin to imagine comprehending. God is a limitless source of knowledge.
Nothing escapes the mind of God or is unknown to Him.
Isaiah asks, Do you not know? Have you not heard? The problem that the people of Israel had in
relation to their knowledge of God is the same problem that we have today. We run the risk of
accumulating all the facts we can about God, but never consider the implications of those facts
and their application to our lives. We also assume that we have all the facts—that we understand
all there is to know about God.
In the final two verses of this passage, Isaiah gives us an ageless God’s timely answer to an age-
old problem. Weakness is a universal experience. Everybody experiences weakness. There is not
one person on the face of the planet who has never been tired and who will not be tired again.
I love the picture that Isaiah paints for us here to illustrate this point. Those of you who have
small children will identify with Isaiah’s words immediately. Kids are a bundle of energy and
never can get enough. Bounce a child on your knee and they’ll say “do it again.” Do it again and
they’ll say “More, more.” And kids can go on far longer than we can but even they will tire out.
Weakness is a perfect euphemism for describing the source of hurts we face, including our hurt
with God. When things don’t turn out the way we wanted them to, we become disappointed, and
more often than not our real disappointment is aimed at God.
Isaiah explains that weakness is a universal experience. Since weakness is part of life and the real
source of disappointments, then it is important that we clearly recognize the difference between
God and life. God is not life. Life is not God. Don’t confuse God with life. Bad things happen in
an imperfect world—that’s part of life.
In v. 31 we are given a word of hope to help us to make it through life’s disappointments: But
those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. We will become weary. We will meet with
life’s disappointments. But that is not the final word. There is strength offered to those who will
reach out and receive it.
It is important that we don’t jump to the mistaken conclusion that if we hope in the Lord, then he
will “zap” us with his supernatural strength and our disappointments will vanish in an instant. In
the last half of this verse, Isaiah describes the three ways in which God renews our strength.
The first phrase he uses to describe God’s renewal is: They will soar on wings like eagles. What
a magnificent picture! Isaiah chooses the image of one of the most majestic of all birds, the
eagle, to describe this special importation of strength by God. In a moment of ecstasy, God
showers His strength upon the weary one in such a manner that the individual is “lifted” above
life’s disappointments, like an eagle soaring on the wind.
When I am crying out to God for strength to overcome my weakness that is the kind of
experience I’m usually looking for. I want to be lifted above the pettiness and disappointments I
face here on a daily basis. I want God to intervene in my life in a spectacular fashion. Well the
truth is that it is rare to experience this kind of strength. Praise God we He chooses to meet us
in this way, but let’s not set our hope on that kind of experience—let’s set our hope in the Lord.
The second way in which God may choose to renew our strength is described in the phrase:
They will run and not grow weary.
I envision Isaiah describing the kind of strength that came upon the prophet Elijah when he was
enabled to outrun King Ahab who had a head start riding on his chariot (1 Kings 18:44-46). This
is another incredible visitation of God’s power upon an individual suffering from weakness.
If mounting up with eagle’s wings is the exception, then I would have to say that this would be
my second choice of how I would like to see God’s strength poured out on me when I am hit by
life’s disappointments. If I can’t fly like a bird, it wouldn’t be too bad to be “faster than a
speeding bullet.” But again this should be seen as only an occasional manifestation of God’s
renewing strength. It is not the normal way in which he works in our lives.
How does God’s strength usually come to us? Look at the final phrase, for in it we see the
climactic way in which we are renewed: They will walk and not be faint.
On the surface it doesn’t sound all that impressive. How can I refer to this as the “climactic way
in which we are renewed?” Think about it for a moment. Where is it most difficult to live? In the
place where you soar in the clouds? In the place where you can run on endlessly? Or in the place
where you simply walk and have to keep on walking? God’s strength usually comes to us in the
ordinary ways. We don’t live life soaring in the clouds or running in the fast lane—life is a matter
of persistent walking.
It is in the dark stretches of life that the most difficult thing to do is to continue to walk and not
quit. It is when we are faced with disappointing circumstances that we need the strength to just
“keep on keepin’ on” and not give up. God meets us where we live and renews our strength so
that we can continue to walk when we feel like we just can’t go on anymore. There won’t be
any great heights achieved or spectacular strength displayed, just the strength that we need to
make it through—the assurance of His presence with us and in us. It’s been a long, slow, painful
process, but I believe that I am finally coming around to under-standing that this is the type of
renewal I need and should long for.
There is but one appropriate response to disappointment with God and that is faith. Faith that will
continue to hope against all hope that God can be trusted even if there is no visible evidence to
support such a position. Faith that stands firm and shouts defiantly, “Yes, I will believe God and
His Word no matter what!”
Remember that we have an ageless God who is able to give us strength to overcome our
weaknesses. The answer that He gives us is to demonstrate unwavering faith in the face of our
disappointments and keep on believing that He will come and renew our strength so that we can
walk and not become weary. Disappointments will come, but God gives us the strength to keep
on walking even when it hurts.
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