The Wings of Eagles

"Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; 

they will mount up with wings like eagles, they

will run and not get tired, 

they will walk and not become weary."

Isaiah 40:31

I was having a really rough day today. It's the end of the semester, finals week is coming up, all my last projects are due and I'm moving out in a matter of days. I've been on the go for months, and I really can't remember the last time I had a day off and just did nothing. So when all the little things seemed to be going wrong today, I was pushed over the edge. And at times like these I usually just want to be alone or with one close friend, and just cry.

So on my way home as I passed Lake Waconia (just like I do everyday), I decided to stop at the landing and just go sit by the water. I knew it was windy, I knew it was cold. I didn't have a coat, and I didn't have anywhere to sit because the docks were all wet from the waves splashing on them. 

But as I sat and listened to the crashing of the waves on the shore, as I watched the parasailers fly across the lake, and as I breathed in the musty lake air, I reflected on what I was telling myself earlier: I just want to be home. Then I realize, this is home. God's Creation is my home, and He has never left me.

God's Platform to Speak

I'm sitting there thinking about how much this reflects the storms of life, and how much this is a reflection of the hard times that come into our lives, like today in mine. And I look and all of a sudden what seems like out of no where there is this big, beautiful bald eagle that stretchs out his wings and flys over me. But he doesn't fly like a normal bird. He flaps his wings hard and he moves sideways, compensating for the wind that's rushing under his wings. He knows which way he needs to go, and he knows the wind, and when things come in the way of that, when storms of life come in the way of that, he knows how to compensate. God created him that way. 

This eagle is merely a bird. 

We are God's greatest Creation, and we also have the ability to compensate. 

I title this The Wings of Eagles, because we can learn a lot from the eagle.

Isaiah 40:31 tells us that we must wait on the Lord, and when we do we will gain a new strength, not a hand-me-down, or a previously owned, or a shined up version of the old strength, but a NEW strength. It says we will "mount up with wings like eagles". With this new strength we will have the ability to fly sideways, to push through the hard times, and to stay on the path we're heading, the path God desires us to be on.

I want to know what it means to find joy in the midst of hardships, to find the straight and narrow in the midst of the curvy and jagged. 

Proverbs 3:6 

"In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight". 

In all your ways compensate with Him, and he will make that path straight, even if you're going sideways to get there.

"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. 

He gives strength to the weary, 

and to him who lacks might He increases power"

Isaiah 40: 28-29

Basking in His Creation and in His Strength

Jenna's Journal

The Simplicity of Faith

A couple Sunday's ago in service, the pastor said something interesting:
"We can come to church and proclaim the name of Christ, we can praise him and give thanks for all the blessings He's given us and the grace He's poured out on us; but, unless that grace is shown through our [day-to-day life] what's the point?" (I definitely paraphrased.)

But that really got me thinking. In our world today we are so confused. We have a million different messages thrown at us everyday. And I'm not just talking about through the media, although it is a source, but even within the church we can have conflicting messages. Sometimes it can seem nearly impossible to be "in the world, but not of it".

This past  year I've found myself struggling with this very concept. Whether it's in friendships, relationships, or just biblical concepts. However, God is faithful through the affliction and "disciplines those He loves" (Proverbs 3:12).

One encouraging verse I always go back is Isaiah 48:10

"Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;

I have tested you in the furnace of affliction."

As God tested me and refined me through this furnace of affliction, I inherited a couple life lessonsthat I was in great need of learning: Contentment & Praise.

In this furnace I learned:

"He has made everything appropriate in its time. 

He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from beginning even to the end."

Ecclesiastes 3:11

and

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praise to Your name, O Most High;

To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning and Your faithfulness by night...

For You, O Lord, have made me glad by what You have done,

I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands."

Psalm 92:1,2,4

These past few months, God has taught me to be content where He has placed me, but also I was convicted that I do not give enough thanks, nor praise to the Lord for all He is, and all He has done in my life. I find myself getting too caught up in the do's and dont's of the Bible, and forget to simply 

"Delight [myself] in the Lord, and He will give [me] the desires of [my] heart." Psalm 37:4

There is a difference between saying something, and living it out. This doesn't just take affect in the things we "do", but it also affect in the way we worship the Lord. 

Are you going through a furnace of affliction where God is trying to show you something (no matter how simple). 

Let's, together, grow through these trials and learn to praise the Lord, and not think too deeply about the simplicity of our faith.

Jenna's Journal