TRANSFORMED

 1970-01-02   Virginia Brandt Berg  

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Greetings in the name of our wonderful Saviour! The Lord bless you and make you a blessing and give you a wonderful day. Welcome to Meditation Moments, and may this meditation be a blessing to your heart as it has been to my own.

Reading in Isaiah 40, that very familiar passage that has been such a blessing to so many, the 28th verse: “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.” (Isaiah 40:28–31)

Those wonderful words, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” That’s a very precious and wonderful verse to me, because I’ve had to ask God to renew my strength so many times, and as you grow older, you’ll find that’s true of yourself also.

It will be just a few months and I will be 79 years of age, and yet I have such a busy life: this program is a very small part of my life, counselling, speaking appointments, and writing, and then I have my homework also. So life is a busy thing for me, and so many times I have to look to the Lord to renew my strength, and I think about this verse.

I’m giving you that personal testimony because it has been such a large part of my life, and I feel like it may strengthen your faith to know that there are those that really depend upon the Lord for their strength: they just draw their strength from Him.

You’re drawing strength from the life of a young man, 33 years of age, when you take the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many times when I’ve been so weary I felt I couldn’t take it any longer, I’ve depended upon this very waiting on the Lord to renew strength.

When you read these words and words like it, and you get quiet in your spirit, then you begin to realize how much of the clang and jar and hurry of the, well I might say of the streets that’s gotten into your soul. But there’s a remedy for that. And there’s a place that you can find quiet and repose and strength. “They that wait upon the Lord.”

I know when the feverishness gets in my own spirit, and the restlessness in my mind and tension in my body, I’ve gone through that just like you have, many times. Then I get alone and read His Word, and search my heart, spend time in prayer.

If you’d only do that until there is restored that perfect peace that the Lord promises, and that sweet rest that He always gives—there’s a mighty repose in it, I can assure you of that—and you’ll mount up with wings as an eagle. (Isaiah 26:3, 40:31 ) You’ll just feel like your spirit is on a high flight indeed. Because you lift your soul to the bosom of God that way, and He brings that repose.

There are so many fine people today in this jet-propelled time that take some kind of tranquilizers to calm them down. Their tensions are so great, and the strain on their lives is just terrific, and the pressures of the day are so many, they have to have something, they say, to quiet them before they can get rest, something to cool the fever of this awful rush.

But it isn’t only with adults, this thing today! I just don’t understand all about it, but I have a schoolteacher friend, and she says she has five pupils in her room that have to be given tranquilizers under doctor’s orders throughout the day. And another friend of mine in North Carolina has a boy in her class room that she has to give tranquilizers to. What a pity that even children need such!

But I know the need is with many for a place for such repose. There’re so many places to go and so many things to do, and it’s so easy to get there, and so fast these days, and sometimes the very thought of staying home and not doing anything doesn’t appeal to many people.

Not going anywhere would be shocking for some folks! And to seek God’s presence and read His Word that they might refresh their soul and clarify their thoughts and take the fever out of their lives, well, they seem to think that would be a real waste of time. But unless they do that, they’ll never know this mounting up with wings as the eagle, this running and not being weary, this walking and not fainting. Yet millions down through the ages have found that only in the presence of God, as they wait upon Him, do they find rest and peace.

Every symptom of restlessness can be subdued in this way: all that restlessness can go out of your soul, if you just get quiet before Him and wait upon Him. You’ll find that prayer makes available the power of God that will just take all that strain out of your life. You’ll get so quiet and in such repose.

God’s Word says, “They who have believed have entered into rest.” (Hebrews 4:3) Now that resting place that He speaks of here comes through faith in God, and faith comes by reading God’s Word. How many times have we repeated that verse: “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” And God’s Word says, “There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.” (Romans 10:17; Hebrews 4:9) You don’t have to wait to get to heaven to get that rest.

I don’t believe there was any hurry or straining in the life of Jesus Christ. Although He had such a busy life, His spirit was always calm and undisturbed. When the crowds grew too great and the demands were too pressing, He went aside to be alone with God, and then He would recapture the serenity of His Spirit: that’s why He went apart and alone so many times.

It says that every man went to his own house. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. (John 7:53, 8:1) Yes, we know He went there, because He had nowhere else to go, but He went also to be alone with God, and to wait upon the Lord.

He knew that in the difficult moments of His life, He could never meet the complexities of His calling unless He could lay His spirit on the bosom of God, until He was just encompassed with peace and confidence for all that awaited Him. But we poor humans, we’ve got so much to do, haven’t we? So active and such a hurry!

The fact is we just go ‘round and ‘round, and we don’t get anywhere, and so much time is wasted. And we could really do twice the work and accomplish so much greater things if we’d take time just to let our hearts go up and up to the throne of God, until His peace and rest would come down and equip us thoroughly for the work of the day.

Did you ever get up some day and just have everything go wrong? You broke dishes or you spilled something, or the phone wore you out, and all those things that happen.—Perhaps because you hadn’t waited for Him the first thing in the morning.

I had such a joy this morning. I have a couple of grandsons visiting me, one is 15 years of age and the other is 17, and when I came through the living room early this morning, here they were both sitting there reading their Bibles quietly! Both are Spirit-filled young men. Talk about your teenagers! There are some that walk with God. And you try it, my friend!

Just walk with God down the avenues of His Word and tarry a while with some of His promises. Read some of the passages like I read you just now, until faith will just flame and leap up in your soul. Don’t hurry! “They that wait upon the Lord.” You can’t ever get a blessing or comfort from the Word of God in a hurry.

Just pause a little over the words of Jesus Christ and give Him time to work in your heart. He wants you to leave with Him every care that you have. He wants you just to drop your burden right with Him and realize that His promises are unfailing.

I can assure you, the longer you tarry to read God’s blessed Word, the greater will grow your confidence that all the things in your life will work together for good to them that love the Lord. Oh, what rest and quiet that brings. What peace that brings to your heart to know that!

A restless, feverish spirit, a hurried life, is not so willing to give time to God to work. The Holy Spirit’s a wonderful teacher when you’re quiet and unhurried before Him.

For the help and the healing, the strength and comfort which makes life liveable and bearable amid all this that’s going on today, will never be found in any system of thought or philosophy. But it’s found in a Person, and that’s the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And you find Him there, closer and closer to your heart in the written Word, the living Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ!

Paul found this secret, for he said, “My life is hid with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3) And I might say that I believe with all my heart that amidst the storm of life that is today beating so mercilessly, and the burdens and the pressures that weary so in this world that we’re in and the condition it’s in, God can empower and sustain you and can help you to live joyously and triumphantly and victoriously, if you’ll just wait on the Lord. Wait, I say! God’s Word says, “Wait on the Lord.” (Psalm 27:14) The dear Lord bless you. Give Him time; give Him a chance.

He’s still on the throne and prayer will change things. Amen.