Wings Like Eagles: Waiting on Jehovah

Pastor Michael Hopkins, Jehovah Saints

Opening Prayer

Let us pray.

Jehovah, our strength and our shield, we come to You weary in ways only You fully see. Some of us are tired in body. Some of us are tired in spirit. Some of us have been carrying a burden so long we've forgotten what it felt like to set it down. Meet us here, Lord. Renew us. Speak to the tired places in us today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Introduction

Good morning, saints.

I want to start today by being honest with you about something. There are seasons in life — and if you're in one right now, you know exactly what I mean — where you do everything right, and it still doesn't get easier. You pray. You show up. You give what you have. You keep believing. And the mountain in front of you does not move. The door stays shut. The provision doesn't come. The healing doesn't happen. Not yet, anyway.

And in those seasons, it is so tempting to believe that God has forgotten you. That your faith isn't working. That everybody else's prayers get answered faster than yours.

I want to bring you a word this morning for exactly that season. It comes from the prophet Isaiah, and it's one of the most comforting, most honest passages in all of Scripture — because it doesn't pretend that waiting is easy. It just tells us what's true while we wait.

Scripture Reading

Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 40, beginning at verse 28. King James Version:

"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 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."

Let's sit with this a moment before we go any further.

I. Jehovah Does Not Grow Tired of You

Look again at verse 28. "The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary."

I want you to hear that clearly this morning, because some of you are afraid you have worn God out. You've prayed the same prayer so many times you're embarrassed to bring it to Him again. You wonder if He's tired of hearing your voice. You wonder if you've asked too many times, hoped too many times, believed too many times without seeing the answer.

Church, hear me: Jehovah does not get tired of you. He is not sighing when you approach Him again. He is not checking a clock, wondering when you'll stop asking. Isaiah tells us plainly — He faints not, He grows not weary. His patience with you is not like our patience with each other. His love does not run thin. You could bring Him the same request every single day for the rest of your life, and He would meet you with the same steady, unhurried love on the last day as He did on the first.

II. Even the Strong Grow Weary — And That's Not a Sin

Now look at verse 30: "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall."

I want to say something that might surprise you: it is not a lack of faith to be tired. Isaiah is not condemning weariness here — he's describing it honestly. Even the young, the strong, the ones who should have the most energy — they faint. They fall. Strength runs out. That is simply true of every human being who has ever lived, no matter how strong their faith.

So if you are worn out this morning — from work, from caregiving, from ministry, from raising children, from grief, from waiting on a promise that hasn't come yet — I need you to release any shame you're carrying about that tiredness. It is not evidence that your faith has failed. It is evidence that you are human, and that Jehovah already knew that about you before He ever made this promise.

III. The Secret Is in the Waiting

Here's where the passage turns, and this is the heart of the message today. Verse 31:

"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."

Notice the word: wait. Not "they that work harder." Not "they that figure it out on their own." Not "they that muscle through by sheer willpower." They that wait upon the LORD.

Now, waiting in Scripture is not passive. The Hebrew word behind "wait" here — qavah — carries the sense of a cord stretched taut, of binding yourself to something, of hope that holds on with tension and expectation, not idle sitting. It's the picture of a rope pulled tight between you and God, holding steady even when you can't see what's on the other end.

That is what it means to wait on Jehovah. Not giving up. Not forcing an answer before its time. Staying bound to Him — in prayer, in trust, in obedience — even when the outcome hasn't arrived yet.

And what does He promise to those who wait like that? Renewed strength. Not eventually, in some vague far-off sense, but as an ongoing exchange — your strength for His. That's what "renew" means here. It's not that you gather more strength. It's that you exchange your worn-out strength for His unending strength, the way you'd trade in something spent for something whole.

IV. Three Pictures of What Renewed Strength Looks Like

Wings like eagles.

An eagle doesn't fight the wind — it rides it. Eagles are known for finding thermal updrafts and spreading their wings to be carried upward without flapping at all. There is a kind of strength that comes not from straining harder, but from learning to be carried. When you wait on Jehovah, He becomes the current that lifts you — and your job shifts from striving to trusting.

Run and not be weary.

This is for the seasons of intensity — the sprint, the crisis, the all-hands-on-deck moment. God promises endurance for the seasons that demand everything from you right now.

Walk and not faint.

This is the harder one, honestly. Walking is not glamorous. It's not a mountaintop moment. It's the slow, ordinary, day-after-day faithfulness — getting up, showing up, doing the next right thing, when there's no eagle-flight feeling and no adrenaline of the sprint. Just the long walk of an ordinary Tuesday, trusting God is still with you in it. And Jehovah promises strength for that too — maybe especially for that.

V. What This Means for Us at Jehovah Saints

I want to bring this home to us specifically, because this ministry knows what it is to wait.

We have watched Jehovah provide a shelter in Kenya when the resources weren't there yet. We have watched Him sustain outreach in Pakistan when our own hands were empty. We have had seasons — real, recent seasons — where our resources have been stretched thin and the need in front of us was greater than what we could see how to meet.

And in every one of those seasons, the temptation is the same: to believe that because the answer hasn't come yet, it isn't coming. To believe that God has forgotten the child who needs a meal, or the family who needs a roof, or the volunteer who is running on empty.

He has not forgotten. He fainteth not, neither is weary. And if we will wait on Him — really wait, that taut-cord, bound-together kind of waiting, not giving up and not forcing our own answers — He has promised to renew our strength for exactly what is in front of us. Wings for the moments we need to be lifted above the situation. Legs for the sprint when the need is urgent. And feet for the long, unglamorous walk of showing up again tomorrow, and the day after that.

Closing Charge

So here is my charge to you this morning.

If you are weary — you are not failing. You are human, and Jehovah already knew that.

If the answer hasn't come yet — do not let go of the cord. Keep waiting on Him, not passively, but with your hope stretched taut toward His promise.

And trust that renewal is coming — wings for the lifting, strength for the running, and steadiness for the walking — because the God we serve does not grow tired, and He will not let you carry this alone.

Closing Prayer

Let us pray.

Jehovah, everlasting God, we bring You our weariness this morning — the tiredness we've been ashamed of, the waiting we've grown frustrated with, the strength we've run out of. Thank You that You do not tire of us, even when we tire of ourselves. Renew us now. Give us wings where we need to be lifted, endurance where we need to run, and steadiness where we simply need to keep walking. We trust You with what has not yet come. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version.