My Dear Friend,

Quiet time spent absolutely alone at Jesus' feet, giving thanks, worshiping, and meditatively reading your Bible, is like soaking in pure eternal energy. Are you tired, worn down, worn out? Completely out of energy?

I wouldn't advise a change in diet, though that may be helpful. I wouldn't suggest more exercise, though that, too, is recreative. I wouldn't advise you to seek new relationships so you can "get a life," though a new relationship, if of God, is certainly a blessing. I wouldn't advise foreign travel, so you can revel in exotic locations, delicious new cuisines, and eye-popping new land and seascapes, though there's certainly rejuvenation in it. I wouldn't even recommend more church activities, though they are usually meaningful if not edifying. Why would I not advise these things?

As interesting, exhilarating, and popular as they are, they offer only a temporary renewal. After a few days or weeks, they wear off - and leave you exactly as you were before you took doses of their medicine. So, for Christians, they are not the answer.

Our lasting answer is found in Isaiah 40:31: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew," or literally exchange, "their strength." That is, we exchange our weak, ineffective, unreliable, prone-to-fail human strength for the mighty, flowing, invigorating, propelling, supernatural, cosmos-creating energy of God!

As a result, we "mount up [or rise] with wings like eagles" who are ready, confident, even eager to face the storms of life (Isaiah 40:31). And why? They know stormy winds provide powerful updrafts and thermals, that lift them on their substantial 6- to 7-foot wings higher and higher, ever nearer the sun!

Similarly, as biblically informed, born-again believers in Jesus Christ face the storms of life - financial stresses, contentious coworkers, church controversies, national catastrophe, war, riot, displacement, marriage problems, rebellious children, sickness or disease, surprising injuries, or just the old draining, day to day grind in a job where refreshments rarely come and workloads rarely cease - we know what to do. We have learned from the eagles.

We hasten to our unfailing, divine energy Source. We spend more time, not less, in God's presence - drinking in more of His invigorating Spirit, feeding on more of His spiritually nourishing Word, letting the indescribably awesome eternal energy of God's presence soak into every fiber of our being until our innermost soul - our furnace, our personal power plant, if you will - is burning, glowing, buzzing with a strength, vitality, and holy excitement that is electric, yet controlled.

Suddenly, we sense something has changed: our weakness, weariness, and anxiety over looming, solutionless problems have gone. They are completely removed, without a trace remaining to trouble us. And a new fortitude, a new impelling force, has taken hold. God's very eternal energy - the real thing, not a cheap religious imitation - is now residing in our temporal bodies to meet every need or problem we may face. Then it happens.

We realize, know, and rejoice that we have a new energy source: life supernatural, life more abundant, indefatigable, undefeatable, undiscourageable heavenly vim and vigor! We can now enjoy this new life in the Spirit daily and never again be pulled down by the storms of life, however severe or long. Oh, joy!

This overcoming life is available to us all the time - before the storm, in the storm, and after the storm. In little storms, big storms, and sudden storms. In vicious storms, pummeling storms, and puzzling storms. In storms that end quickly and storms that linger, and seem to have no end. Life in God's presence has made us spiritually stormproof! Our God-confidence soars like the eagle and flies high above all our life-fears.

Isaiah's ancient wondrous vision has become our daily modern wonder. After having our strength exchanged for God's strength while "waiting" upon Him, and "mounting up" with divine inspiration, we find ourselves able to "run" and "walk" and "not faint."

We "run" through busy days from morning to night - but now without being drained with exhaustion, discouraged by fickle moods, or troubled by anxiety over tomorrow's looming problems or labors.

We "walk" through lonely valleys in life's humblest stations: hot, dry circumstantial deserts where God's outward blessings are nowhere in sight; rivers of trouble with overwhelming currents of grief or sadness; and floods of rising resistance that threatens to drown our faith, work, or ministry.

Yet in all these dire situations satanically crafted to stumble us - but divinely approved to convert us to divine strength - miraculously, due to the eternal energy powering us within, we continue to "walk." We keep advancing, upright, stable, not stumbling, and "not faint[ing]" in doubt or unbelief, always steadily moving forward in our fellowship with Christ and our divinely appointed life work. Steady. Walking. Not swiftly but surely. Always progressing. And giving God new thanks and praise with every new step!

Naturally, when our weather turns cold, we turn to our trusted energy sources for heat. Spiritually, it is the same. Whatever natural season we are in, it's always cold outside spiritually. Very cold indeed! Chilled by unbelief, frosty with carnal reasoning, numb with empty religion, and frozen in sin, this spiritually frigid, fallen world is far from the healing warmth of the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:1-2).

So, today, turn to Him, your divine energy Source, and warm your heart at the eternal energy exchange. Remember, to experience the wondrous new way of life Isaiah describes, your divine reenergizing must occur every day. So, determine to spend time at Christ's feet, praying, worshiping and studying His Word in His penetrating, permeating presence with new regularity and unrelenting persistence. And experience the wonder of Isaiah 40:31 - waiting, mounting up, running, walking, not fainting.

Experiencing the wonder,

Greg Hinnant

GREG HINNANT MINISTRIES