Hope Again: Going From Broken To Soaring In The Storm Of Life Series

My wife and I were traveling to see a musical in Charlotte, Mi Saturday. We’ve often felt a divine connection with the bald eagle. I recall numerous times when God would use the bald eagle to give me a nudge in the Spirit, or give me a sense of hope for the future. I saw eagles talon locking over my car on the highway once and it was right before Chelsey and I would become friends. I have eagle pictures in my house. My step-dad even got me a brass eagle as a gift, because he knows how eagles remind me of God’s promises and hope. It’s the same for Chelsey.

Anyway, we were driving and right over our car we saw a beautiful bald eagle flying. We’ve had some real struggles lately, along with many blessings, so it really spoke to both of us.

I had a period from December through early April where I had constant GI issues, high stress levels, and racing thoughts, ever since going off anti-depressants, after being on them for over ten years. I knew was time to move forward, but the process had left me miserable and struggling. Thankfully, it’s slowly getting better.

Have you experienced a season in your life when you were broken and weary? Did it seem to go on and on? Did it seem to never end? What were you feeling?

I can tell you about numerous experiences in my life when I simply longed for a hard time period, that moment, to be over.

You try to make the best of it. You try to keep a good attitude. But the storm rages. And part of you just wants out.

That brings us to the context of our scripture today. Judah was facing an enemy, Assyria that was threatening to destroy them. But God promises they will be ok.

King Hezekiah leads the nation through this hard time relying on God. But even he becomes deathly sick, but he cries out in prayer to God and God heals him. And Assyria is defeated by God, and driven away.

Yet Isaiah 40, our scripture today, speaks not only of the victories in the past, of Hezekiah and the victory over Assyria, but, it speaks of the future, a time when Judah would be in captivity in Babylon, but would then return home and rebuild the nation.

Have you ever felt like God doesn’t see you? Have you felt that God sees you, but your cause doesn’t seem to matter to Him?

Did you cry out to God? Did you pray? Did you ask God what was going on?

I can think of many circumstances in my life where I cried out to God and said to God, "What are you doing? Where is your help in my time of need?"

We all have to learn something about how God acts in our lives: We can’t predict what he’s going to do. Our moral judgment about God’s actions in the situation are almost always incorrect. Don’t try to say, "Well, here is how and when God is going to help me."

God is very unpredictable, but it’s not random either. What he’s doing is very calculated and intentional. It’s most often intended to teach you something very deep or make an adjustment deep within you.

When you understand that, your trials and problems make a lot more sense.

So it starts out in Isaiah 40:27, with God saying to the nation, “Why do you complain, Jacob?”

You will find yourself in situations where you feel weak. You can’t move. You can’t function right. You are off. Not just for a day, but for a season. For a year. Even longer. You can’t function. You can’t make it.

Your heart grows weary, tired, cold, and you begin to lose hope.

We become like the eagle, sitting on the tree branch, unable to fly, or unwilling to fly.

And we complain, we cry out to God.

And God replies, “Why do you complain?”

The NIV renders it “complain” but it’s actually saying why are you speaking this way?

And it continues, God says..

“Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”?

That is the assumption, when we are going through something hard, and we pray and nothing happens, we think to ourselves, “Where is God?”

It’s at just those times when we need to be reminded who God is.

It’s easy to know “Jesus is my savior” when everything is going great. But it’s when everything is crazy we have to cling to the promise that Jesus is savior.

Let me tell you about the eagle. The eagle during a storm finds a safe place, a nest, a strong branch, and it digs it’s talons in tight.