Dear friend,
but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
I got laid off once, years before I met my husband. First thing I did was clean my entire apartment at 7am like that would fix anything. Then I sat on the floor of a very clean kitchen and cried for no productive reason. I applied to nine jobs that week and heard nothing back and started to feel like waiting itself was a kind of failing, like I should be doing waiting better somehow, faster, with more optimism.
Isaiah 40:31 has been sitting on me the way that week does. The part about strength renewing for those who wait on God. What gets me is the order of it. Running comes, then walking, but waiting comes first and it is not described as weakness. I always pictured waiting as the empty part before the real part starts. This flips it. The waiting is where the strength gets handed over, not where nothing happens.
I do not know how long this stretch lasts for you or what Monday looks like. I keep thinking about how being out of work turns ordinary days into a test you did not sign up for. What is the hardest hour of your day right now?
A prayer
God, the waiting feels like failing some days. Renew her strength in the actual waiting, not just after it ends. Steady her through the next application, the next silence, the next morning. Amen.