Don't snack out! until you call on Jesus, for they that wait on the Lord shall get new strength. Dr. Tony Evans says when life gets harder, waiting on God often becomes the one thing we resist. Yet it may be exactly what he's teaching us to do.
Our God is able to meet you right where you are, even while you wait. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. When your heart or your spirit feels like they're breaking, What you want is relief, not patience. But today Doctor Evans explains that there's a point behind the process you're in, even if it's painful.
Let's turn to Isaiah 40 as Doctor Evans gets us into our lesson for today. Isaiah is writing to his People. who are tired of waiting. Why do you say, verse 27, ask the question, O Jacob? and assert oh Israel.
Yeah. My way is hidden from the Lord, justice do me. Escapes the notice of my God, or to put it in our everyday nomenclature, it's not fair. He raises the problem of waiting. The readers were discouraged and weary of waiting.
The question was, when is God going to keep his word?
Now, this is not a bunch of atheists who are wondering: does God exist? They're raising a much more practical question. Since God exists, why am I waiting? And you know how it is when you wait. And wait and wait.
Panic sets in. You always know when people are tired of waiting. They move from singing the gospel to singing the blues.
Some folk, when they get tired of waiting. flip from experience to experience. They want to be propped up. And so they want to forget the fact that they're having to wait. for whatever it is that they're waiting for.
And so they run to this experience. or that experience. It could be alcohol. or drugs, it could be any number of things, but it's designed to help them to forget. Sat there waiting.
You see They have made the proverbial mistake. That If God is silent. He must also be still. They had concluded, if I can't see God doing something. then inevitably he must be doing nothing.
Because I don't see God. God told Noah it was going to rain. And he had to wait 120 years before he saw one drop. Hannah wanted a baby. And she had to wait.
Until God supernaturally moved many years later. Ruth wanted a husband. And she had to wait. Rebecca waited for justice. Jesus told the disciples they were going to have to wait for Pentecost.
Verse 20. Yeah. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is inscrutable. How do you wait? When you have no choice but to wait. He says, in the context of waiting, you must know the character of God. And when you have to wait in silence and in cold weather, and when your circumstances are drizzly and cloudy and rainy.
He appeals to what you know about God. as the basis of your waiting. He says God is an everlasting God. He doesn't look at your clock to determine his plan. Time is different for him.
Than it is for us. Second thing he wants you to know about God is that he is the creator God. Not only does he operate outside of your clock. But he operates outside of your clock. With the ability To do anything he wants when he chooses to do it without any raw materials to use to get it done.
So don't get all bent out of shape. Because he's operating silently. You don't know what in the world he's doing. You don't know why he's taking so long because you're wasting your time. His understanding is inscrutable.
That's what makes him God.
Well, then, how am I supposed to make it? When I don't know where he is, I don't know what he's doing, the justice do me, is it coming to me? He's got all his power, he's got this new clock I don't understand, how in the world am I gonna make it?
Well, here's how you're going to make it while you wait. He gives strength to the weary. Let me say that again. He gives strength to the weary. I can't tell you when your breakthrough gonna come.
because he hadn't told me. I can't tell you. But he told me something I can tell you. While you're waiting. He will give you New strengths.
Yeah. And notice it says he gives it. You don't have to earn it. You don't have to work for it. He grants it.
To those who are weary.
So, the only qualification you have to have to get the new strength while you wait is to be weary. You say, well, how come I don't have the strength yet? Because you're not weary yet. You say, don't tell me I'm not weary. You don't know me or my mama.
Don't tell me that I am not weary. You're not weary. How do you know I'm not weary? Because you're still trying to make it happen in your own strength.
So you're not weary? To be weary is to come to the end of your resources. It is to say to God, if you don't, I can't. That's weary. But if you're still manipulating.
Trying to make it happen in the flesh, trying to create it through your own strength, you are not faint enough yet. The great verse in 2 Peter 2:9, which says, God knows how to deliver. The godly out of their trials.
So He does not have an ability problem. He knows how to bring a change quickly. But he wants you in a totally dependent position. Weary.
Now you can become weary voluntarily or mandatorily. I mean, he can put you in a situation until you get weary. Or you can decide I'm weary up front. Come on, I'm that weary. Call me my middle name Weary.
Millions? Really, you don't like that? Call me faint. I'll be whatever you want me to be. And while you wait.
While you are waiting. He will Replenish you. New strength. Young men verse 30 says. Grow weary.
entire. Yeah. So it's not about how old you are. Oh, if I were 20 years younger, I could handle this. God says, no, no, I know some tired young folk.
Young folk walking around like old folk, young folk who want to give up, young folk who throw their lives away. Youth does not solve this problem. Young men grow weary and tired. In fact, vigorous young men stumble badly. Athletes, vigorous young men.
It's a reference to athletes. Athletes who are well conditioned.
So it's not about your shape. how much workout you do. It's not about any of that.
Now I know what you're saying.
Okay, help me. Help me because I'm about to quit. I'm about to throw in the towel. I hear this God's stuff every week. I hear it every Wednesday.
I hear it every Sunday. My circumstance hasn't changed and I am tired. Help me. I'm tired of my marriage. I'm tired of my work.
I'm tired of my life. I'm tired. And if you don't give me something, that is something from God that will give me a new. Filling! But I can't make it.
I'm just so, so very, very. Tired.
Well Verse 31 is for you. I know it looks like the justice due you is gone. I know you're tired. And I know you can't figure out. The inscrutable.
But verse 31 is one you can bank on. It's yours. even though you're tired. They That wait. Upon the Lord.
We'll renew. Their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will. Run!
and not faint they will walk and not get weary. In a moment, Dr. Evans will return with a look at what spiritual refreshment feels like when it comes along. Stay with us. As we anticipate the new year, we want to not only end this year strong, but go into the new year.
able to take advantage of all the opportunities that God has brought. our way. for the transformation of individual lives. for the building of strong biblically based families. for strengthening churches, and that's what we're committed to do.
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That's TonyEvans.org. Thank you for your generosity. Before we continue, I'd like to tell you about Tony's current resource offer. His two-volume 12-message series called Soul Starved: Journey to the Source. If you've been waiting on God and wondering if He still sees you, This series will renew your hope and help you recognize that your hunger and delay have divine purpose.
We'll send you the full collection, including material we won't have time to share on the air. along with Tony's popular book, God Himself. In it, Dr. Evans walks you through the attributes of God, helping you trust His timing, rest in His wisdom, and draw strength from His presence. These resources are yours is our way of saying thanks when you make a contribution to help us keep this broadcast coming your way.
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Well, let's get back to Dr. Evans now. The word weight in Hebrew is an interesting word. It was used in the process of making rope. Whoa!
is a collection of strands. that have been knitted together. The more strands, The thicker the rope.
So you can have small rope or big rope. It just depends on how many strands. of string you put together. It starts off with one single strand. It's weary.
In other words, the rope will break. If you feel like you're about to break. If you're hanging on by, watch this, a thread. That means you have not become yet. A rake.
Ew. For a rope, even though it's one rope. If not, One strand. It is a compilation of strands knitted together to make one thick rope. The word weight was the process of stranding one strand of string after another again and again and again and again until you wind up with a rope and you understand.
One string will break. One rope does not. Why does one believer quit and another not quit when they're in the same situation? Why does one believer throw in the towel and another one keeps on keeping on when they're in the same situation? Why does one single live in misery and another single lives in victory when both are looking to God for a maid?
Because one is hanging on to a strength. And the other one is hanging on to a rope. Waiting on the Lord involves one other thing. It involves worship. Because to wait on the Lord was also to wait before the Lord.
It involves worship. It was being in his presence. His presence is what gives you the ability. to handle the time dilemma. While you're waiting.
Which is the frustration of time. He wants you to wait in his presence. And what he is suggesting is As David said, In his presence is joy evermore. What God does is supply the emptiness of your weight. With the veracity of his joy.
So that the weight is tolerable. God wants us to wait on him. to entertain his presence. And he gives three. things he will do.
One. They will mount up with wings as eagles. He's giving you the three ways, he will give new strength. And by the way, let me define new strength. The word new strength means to exchange our weakness for his strength.
A second way. is that you run. And you don't get tired. I call this God's interaction. His interaction.
is where he becomes. You're jogging, buddy. It's a big difference running alone and running with somebody.
Okay. Especially if the somebody is a better runner than you. They will talk you into not quitting when you would have stopped a long time ago because their interaction with you causes you to forget about the fact that you're a runner. That's why some of you jog with earphones on.
So when you hear your favorite song. You're not thinking about running anymore. You got this interaction going on in your ear.
So now you, all of a sudden, you were huffing and puffing one minute and now you singing along with the song the next minute because somebody is running with you. That's why you need the body of Christ because you need somebody jogging with you. You need somebody to remind you it's going to be okay. You're going to make it. Keep on, keeping on.
Don't quit. That's when God runs with you.
Sometime. Yeah. You're walking. You can't run no more. The load's too heavy.
They that walk. will not become weary. I was carrying some things to a meeting. that I had to go to when I was at the airport. And I had a bag in this hand and a heavy box of pamphlets in this hand because I didn't want to deal with baggage and have to go down the baggage claim and all of that.
So I carried it. But I had to catch my flight. Nobody swooped down to help me. Nobody intervened. to help me with my loan.
So I started running with this heavy box in my bag. And I couldn't run no more.
So now I'm walking. Because it's just too heavy. I can't run no more. That's when I saw it. Moving sidewalk.
I went over to the moving sidewalk and I stood there. And let it carry me. That's God's inner action. It's where you too tired to run. You can't, you don't have your get up and go.
It's gotten up and gone. You don't have any energy. And he comes underneath you. And bears you along so that you can at least walk. Either way though.
Same result.
Okay. New strength. Not weary. You won't. Think.
You're going to make it. You gonna make it. They that wait on the Lord. Shall get a new capacity. to keep going.
until their change comes. And sometimes God's going to swoop down and deliver you out of it. Other times, God's going to just jog with you and talk to you. While you run the race, other times God is going to come underneath you and bear you along because the load's too heavy and you can barely walk. Either one of the three ways will result in the same thing: new capacity.
I know you're tired. When is my situation going to change? I know you're weary. When am I gonna stop hurting like this? I know you're frustrated.
The needs are not fully being met. But I got a verse. They that wait on the Lord. Shall we do that strength? Little boy one day went to the grocery store with his mother.
His mother was in a harry. She had places to go, things to do, people to see. She said, Boy, let's go in here and get our stuff and go. As they were pushing the carts. He saw some chocolate chip cookies.
In the aisle. He said, Mama, please for some chocolate chip cookies. She said, I told you, boy, I'm in a hurry. No chocolate chip cookies today. We gotta go.
She went down another aisle, but he couldn't forget those chocolate chip cookies. He said, Mama. Mama, please let me go get some chocolate chip cookies. She said, Boy, I told you I'm in a hurry. We cannot get chocolate chip cookies today.
You don't need chocolate chip cookies. I am sorry. No chocolate chip cookies. She went on and continued her shopping. He jumped off the cart, went and found that aisle with the chocolate chip cookies.
Went up there, picked up two packs of chocolate chip cookies, ran back to his mom. Say, Mama, look, I got the chocolate chip cookies. She said, Boy, I told you you're not getting no chocolate chip cookies. Take those chocolate chip cookies back. With tears coming down his eyes, he went back and took back the chocolate chip cookies, got back in the cart.
Then the mama came to the checkout line. The mama is in the checkout line waiting to check out because mama's in a hurry. She's got places to go, things to do, and people to see. While his mama is waiting in the checkout line, the little boy gets up and he says, Shall we pray? He stands in the cot.
He says, Lord Jesus. My mama won't let me have no chocolate chip cookies. I want to let you know that I trust in you. You are my God and you are my savior. And I believe that you can turn this thing around and make my mama give me some chocolate chip cookies.
All the folks in all the checkout lines begin to clap for the little boy as the little boy prays for his chocolate chip cookies. The mama was so embarrassed, she went into the aisle, picked out the chocolate chip cookies, brought them back to the cart, and the little boy had his chocolate chip cookies.
Some of you are in the checkout line. You want to check out of your marriage? You want to check out of your circumstances? You want to check out of your situation. But if you become like the little boy and stand up and say, Jesus, you know my situation.
Jesus, you know my problem. And I'm calling on you, Jesus. You won't check out. Till you get your blessing. You won't check out till you get your cookies.
Don't check out until you call on Jesus. For they that wait on the Lord shall get new strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not get weary.
Somebody ought to praise him for new strength.
Somebody ought to praise him for new energy. Our God is able to meet you right where you are. Even while you wait. Dr. Tony Evans, talking about the peace and power that grow out of patience in the Lord.
Now, if today's lesson has reminded you that nothing else can fully satisfy your heart but God, You'll want to go deeper with Dr. Evans' book, God Himself. It's a journey into the wonder of who God is and how His presence restores what's missing in our lives. Learn how to move from knowing about God to truly experiencing Him day by day. You can get your copy when you make a contribution in support of the Alternative Ministry.
And if you do that right away, we'll include all 12 full-length messages from Tony's current series on spiritual hunger. It's called Soul Starved, Journey to the Source. And it'll help you discover not only why we long for God, but but how we can go about satisfying that deep-rooted need. Make the arrangements to get the book God Himself and the Soul Starve series when you visit Tonyevans.org. Details are right on the home page.
or call one of our helpful resource team members any time of the day or night. At 1-800-800-3222. That's Tony Evans.org. or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. You know, a car without an engine can look good.
but it's not going to take you very far. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans explains that the same is true of a Christian without the power of the Holy Spirit in their life. I hope you'll join us.
