September 3, 2026
By Virginia Brandt Berg
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We’re reading this morning a wonderful passage of Scripture. It is Isaiah 40:28–31:
“Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints 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 increases 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 the eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.”
God’s Word says here in verse 29 that “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength.”
Turning to 2 Corinthians 12:10, we see a statement that’s similar to this one. It’s about the Apostle Paul, the great scholar, the talented writer, the outstanding Christian apostle. He says, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” If we note to whom Paul is writing, it may help us to find insight into this statement, because Paul wrote these words to the Greeks. The Greeks exalted perfection of the physical body, not only through their national races and games, but they also made it the basis of ancient Greek art and sculpture.
They had absolutely no use for a weakling. We know from what Paul writes elsewhere that they attributed weaknesses to him and scorned him, the man that had been stoned, whipped, and imprisoned. This did not at all constitute their ideas of strength.
They didn’t understand that God frequently works contrary to human logic and natural expectations. God has His own way of doing things that is quite contrary to our ideas, for He says in His Word, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9).
The Greeks inferred also that Paul was not an orator, that his speech was contemptible. The greatest ambition of a Greek was to be an orator. Now the lack of the gift of oratory was simply weakness to them. But God’s way has always been that it’s the Spirit in the speech, not the oratorical power, that counts. Paul said, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20). So this that the Greeks called weakness, God calls strength.
How many times we can recall that we’ve heard some humble speaker not gifted in oratory, not learned in man’s wisdom or trained in man’s colleges, but so filled with the Spirit of God that he literally swept an audience along on the tide of his earnestness and the power of God manifested through him. This was a man so humble, so emptied of self, so weak in himself that God had a chance to work through him. As Paul said: “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Then the Lord can replace such weakness with His strength. When we are the weakest in ourselves, we become strong in the Lord through our dependence on Him. So what the Greeks, due to their ignorance of spiritual things, would have called weakness becomes strength. “To them that have no might he increases strength” (Isaiah 40:29).
If we are so sure of our own strength, so confident of our own power, the Lord may let us walk on our own, in the strength we are so sure of. I’m reminded of my daughter when she was a little tot just learning to walk. She was naturally very impulsive, and she insisted on trying to walk by herself rather than letting me hold her hand and guide her. She really couldn’t walk alone, but with her independent spirit, she’d pull away, and over and over again she’d launch out by herself, falling, bumping, bruising, until almost always she bore the marks of her declaration of independence on the end of her little nose.
How many of our lives bear the marks of our independence, our wanting to lean on our own strength, until we are broken, defeated, and disappointed, and we eventually learn our lesson. What a pity that we should depend on human strength when we can have the divine, that we should draw only upon natural resources when we can call on heaven’s resources. How strange it is that we should insist on walking in our own strength, depending on our own wisdom, when we can have the power of almighty God!
The Lord wants to be our ally; He longs to strengthen us and comfort us and supply our needs. But if we insist on walking in our own strength, then we will stumble around till we find how little strength we really have in ourselves. Then the foundations of our pride and confidence in human strength are shaken and we at last come to the realization that our human strength is weakness.
Moses was weak and stammering, but he became the greatest lawgiver the world ever knew. The disciples were unknown and mostly unlearned men. But oh, the influence of those weak men is felt to this very day, because they recognized their weakness and put no confidence in themselves.
Of course, I believe that we are to do all we can, just as Jesus told them to roll away the stone, but He did the raising of Lazarus. But beyond that, we must look to God for the strength.
Dearly beloved, let us look to God very definitely and search our hearts to see if we really are depending on Him, if we are looking to Him as we should, and not leaning upon our own strength. Then the humble, the meek, the weak can become strong, and your testimony will be “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
Remember, all of God’s spiritual giants were weak men who became great strong men by God’s power. God says, “I will dwell in the humble and contrite heart,” while the world puts its confidence in the arm of the flesh. Put your confidence in the Lord alone. Ask God for His wisdom and His strength, and He will give it to you.
Let’s bow our heads in a word of prayer. Father, we pray that You will help us to be humble and contrite in spirit and not put our confidence in the flesh. Lead us to the path that will keep us conscious of our own weakness, so that we can diligently seek and depend utterly upon Your strength.
I love how this old song depicts this thought so clearly:
Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into Thy freedom, gladness, and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of my sickness, into Thy health,
Out of my want and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of sorrows into Thy balm,
Out of life’s storms and into Thy calm,
Out of distress to jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of the fear and dread of the tomb,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come.
Into the joy and light of Thy throne,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold,
Ever Thy glorious light to behold,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
—William T. Sleeper, 1887
So out of our weakness we come to His strength, because when we’re weak, then He is strong. Let’s remember that God is still on the throne and prayer changes things.
From a transcript of a Meditation Moments broadcast, adapted. Published on Anchor September 2026. Read by Lenore Welsh.
Copyright © 2026 The Family International
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