Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV) ~ “But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”
There is a moment in almost every assignment when the shovel begins to feel heavier than it did when you first picked it up. The ground may not have changed, the promise may not have changed, and God certainly has not changed, but you have been digging for a while. Your hands are tired, your expectations have been stretched, and the excitement you felt when you first heard God say, “Go,” has collided with the reality of what it takes to keep going. You still believe God. You still love God. You have not forgotten what He told you. You are simply tired, and sometimes being tired can cause you to question something that God has already confirmed.
That is why Isaiah 40:31 speaks so powerfully to this part of your journey. Isaiah was speaking prophetically to a people who would understand what it meant to become weary while waiting. Israel would experience captivity, disappointment, uncertainty, and seasons when it seemed as though God had forgotten them. Earlier in Isaiah 40, the people questioned whether their way was hidden from the Lord and whether God had overlooked their situation. Isaiah redirected their attention away from their circumstances and back toward the character of God. He reminded them that the everlasting God does not faint or become weary and that His understanding cannot be measured. Then he declared that this same God gives power to the weak and increases strength to those who have none left.
When Isaiah says that those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, waiting does not mean sitting around doing nothing. Biblical waiting carries the idea of hoping, trusting, expecting, and remaining dependent upon God. It is the posture of someone who recognizes, “I cannot continue this journey in my own strength, but I know where my strength comes from.” You are not sitting beside your shovel waiting for God to do everything for you. You are learning how to keep your hands on the shovel without depending entirely upon the strength in your own hands.
There is an important distinction you must understand: being tired is not the same as being finished. You can be tired and still called. You can be weary and still be walking in obedience. You can need rest and still be exactly where God told you to be. You can have questions and still possess faith. God never promised that you would never become tired. He promised that your strength could be renewed. James speaks to this same reality when he addresses believers who were scattered and facing difficult trials. He did not pretend that hardship was easy. Instead, he taught them the value of endurance. James 1:12 reminds you that there is blessing attached to remaining faithful under pressure. Your fatigue does not automatically mean the assignment is over. Sometimes it simply means you have reached the place where your strength must end so that God’s strength can sustain you.
Read this story and ask God to open your understanding to receive what He is saying to you. The Well That Almost Wasn’t! There was once a farmer whose land had suffered through a long drought. His crops were drying up, his animals needed water, and every day the situation became more desperate. Someone familiar with the land told him that there was likely water beneath one particular section of his property. The farmer believed him, grabbed his shovel, and began digging. The first day he dug several feet but found nothing. The next morning he returned and went deeper, but there was still no water. Day after day he came back to the same place. His hands developed blisters, his back began to ache, and the pile of dirt beside the hole grew larger, yet there was still no visible sign of what he desperately needed.
Eventually, his neighbors began offering their opinions. Some told him he had been digging long enough. Others suggested there probably was no water there at all. A few told him he should abandon that hole and start somewhere else. After hearing their voices long enough, the farmer began questioning what he had originally believed. One afternoon, exhausted and discouraged, he climbed out of the hole and decided he was finished. He put the shovel away, not because he knew there was no water beneath the ground, but because he had become too tired to keep believing that there was.
Later, a man who understood the land examined the place where the farmer had been digging. When he looked into the hole, he noticed something the exhausted farmer had overlooked. The soil at the bottom was beginning to change. It was darker, cooler, and contained traces of moisture. The man told him, “You don’t need another hole. You need to go a little deeper in the one you already started.” The farmer returned, picked up his shovel, and began digging again. Not much farther beneath the place where he had stopped, water began seeping through the soil. Soon more came, and eventually the well began to fill. The water had been there all along. The farmer had not been digging in the wrong place; he had simply become tired in the right place.
There is a word in that story for you because you must be careful that exhaustion does not convince you to abandon ground God told you to dig. Sometimes weariness will make you question an assignment that was perfectly clear when you were rested. What you once called a calling suddenly begins to feel like a burden. What you once called a promise begins to feel impossible. What you once prayed for begins to feel like something you want to escape. Nothing about God’s Word changed, but weariness changed the way you were looking at it. This is why you must be careful about making permanent decisions from temporary exhaustion.
You may need to rest. You may need to slow down. You may need to pray differently, ask for help, reorganize your schedule, establish new boundaries, or simply sit quietly in God’s presence and allow Him to replenish what you have poured out. None of those things mean you have failed. Even Jesus withdrew from crowds and went into solitary places to pray. He slept in the boat. He stepped away from demands and spent time alone with the Father. Jesus demonstrated that rest and purpose are not enemies. Sometimes rest is how God protects the purpose so you have enough strength to complete what He assigned to you.
There is no glory in exhausting yourself trying to prove to God that you are faithful. God does not need you depleted in order to demonstrate your commitment. He wants you dependent upon Him. Isaiah does not say that those who work harder will renew their strength; it says that those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. Perhaps today God is not telling you to dig faster. Maybe He is teaching you how to dig differently. You may have been carrying responsibilities He never asked you to carry, worrying about outcomes that belong to Him, and trying to control timing that only He understands. Eventually, all of that becomes heavy. The shovel feels much heavier when you believe everything depends upon you, but it becomes lighter when you remember that you are partnering with God. Your responsibility is obedience, but the outcome belongs to God. Your responsibility is to plant, but God produces the growth. Your responsibility is to dig where He directs you, but He knows exactly where the water is. Your responsibility is faithfulness, while fulfillment remains in His hands. When you understand this, you stop carrying the pressure of trying to make everything happen and begin experiencing the peace of partnering with the One who already knows the end from the beginning.
Think about Elijah in 1 Kings 19. He had just experienced one of the greatest victories of his prophetic ministry on Mount Carmel. God answered by fire, the prophets of Baal were defeated, and rain returned after a long drought. Yet shortly afterward, Elijah became afraid, overwhelmed, exhausted, and discouraged. He sat beneath a tree and told God he had had enough. What is striking about the story is God’s response. The Lord did not immediately give Elijah another sermon or condemn him for feeling exhausted. God allowed him to sleep, provided food, and gave him time to recover. Then the angel told Elijah to eat because the journey ahead was too great for him.
Sometimes you do not need another strategy; you need strength. Sometimes you do not need another assignment; you need God to replenish you for the one you already have. Sometimes you do not need another prophetic word; you need to rest in the last thing God already told you. Elijah’s exhausted moment did not determine the ending of his story. After he rested and was strengthened, God spoke to him again and gave him direction for what came next. Your tiredness does not frighten God, your weariness does not cancel your calling, and your need for renewal does not make you spiritually weak. It makes you human. The danger comes when you interpret tiredness as permission to abandon something God still intends for you to finish.
Isaiah says that those who wait upon the Lord will mount up with wings like eagles. There is something powerful about the eagle. Instead of exhausting itself by fighting every current, an eagle learns how to spread its wings and allow the currents beneath it to carry it higher. The very wind that creates resistance can become the wind that produces elevation. God can do the same thing with the pressure you are experiencing. The season that made you tired can teach you dependence. The delay that frustrated you can develop your patience and the resistance that challenged you can strengthen your faith. The silence that confused you can sharpen your ability to recognize God’s voice. The difficult ground can develop spiritual muscles that soft soil never could have produced.
So, before you throw your shovel away, ask God an important question: “Lord, is this still where You told me to dig?” If He says no, allow Him to redirect you. But if He says yes, do not allow exhaustion to move you from an assignment that God has not released you from. Rest if you need to rest. Reposition if you need to reposition. Receive help if you need help. Allow God to restore your strength, but when He renews you, put your hands back on the shovel.
Remember how this journey began. You picked up the shovel because God had given you an assignment. Then you learned to dig before you could see anything happening beneath the surface. Now you are learning what to do when the process becomes tiring. You wait upon the Lord. You allow Him to renew your strength. You adjust your grip, steady your heart, remember what He told you, and then you dig again. Do not abort the mission simply because your hands became tired. The water may be closer than you think.
Let’s Pray,
Father, today I come before You acknowledging that there are places where I am tired. You know every assignment I have carried, every prayer I have prayed, every burden I have brought before You, and every place where I have continued digging even when I could not see the results. Thank You that I do not have to pretend to be strong in Your presence. You already know where my hands are weary, where my heart is discouraged, and where my spirit needs renewal. Today, I bring all of those places to You and ask You to meet me there with Your strength. Father, teach me the difference between being tired and being finished. Do not allow temporary exhaustion to make decisions about permanent purpose. When I become weary, teach me to come closer to You instead of walking away from what You called me to do. Give me wisdom to recognize when I need rest, when I need help, when I need adjustment, and when I simply need courage to continue. Help me never mistake a need for renewal as a sign that You have canceled my assignment. Lord, forgive me for the times I have tried to accomplish Your work entirely in my own strength. Forgive me for carrying outcomes that belong to You, worrying about timing that belongs to You, and trying to control circumstances that were never mine to control. Today I release the pressure of having to make everything happen. I choose obedience and leave the outcome in Your hands. Teach me how to work faithfully without carrying burdens You never assigned to me. Father, You promised that those who wait upon You will renew their strength, so renew me today. Renew my mind where discouragement has settled. Renew my heart where disappointment has entered. Renew my passion where the process has become repetitive. Renew my prayer life where waiting has made me weary. Renew my vision so I can once again see my assignment through the eyes of faith. Let fresh strength rise within me until I can continue without resentment, fear, or frustration. Holy Spirit, show me whether I am tired in the wrong place or simply tired in the right place. If I have moved outside of Your will, redirect me. If I am carrying something You never assigned to me, give me courage to release it. But if I am standing exactly where You told me to stand, give me strength not to abandon the field simply because the soil has become difficult. Give me discernment to recognize the difference between divine redirection and ordinary resistance. Father, strengthen my hands again. Let the hands that almost released the shovel receive fresh strength from heaven. Remind me why I started. Remind me what You spoke. Remind me of the doors You opened, the confirmations You gave, the prayers You answered, and the moments when Your presence assured me that I was walking in the right direction. When I cannot see what is ahead, help me remember what You have already done behind me. Lord Jesus, thank You for understanding human weariness. Thank You for showing me that rest is not weakness and dependence upon the Father is not failure. Teach me to develop healthy rhythms of prayer, work, worship, obedience, and rest so I can remain faithful for the entire journey rather than simply being passionate at the beginning. I do not want to begin well and abandon the mission halfway through. I want to remain faithful until everything You assigned to my hands has been completed. Today, Father, I choose not to abort the mission because I became tired. I choose to wait upon You until my strength is renewed. I choose to rise again, believe again, pray again, and trust again. When You tell me it is time, I will put my hands back on the shovel and dig again. I believe that what You have placed beneath the surface is worth the process required to uncover it, and I trust You to give me the strength necessary for every step of the journey. In Jesus Christ Mighty Name, Amen.
Nugget ~ Weariness is an invitation to lean on God’s strength, not permission to lay down your shovel.
Blessings…
Love, Dr. Jean…
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