Strength for the Journey

‘You found new life for your strength and so you were not faint’ At first reading these words in Isaiah 57:10 seem greatly encouraging, but when they are seen in their context they are in fact puzzling. God is criticizing and judging the nation of Israel because of their constant failure and disobedience. He accuses the nation’s leaders of immorality, idolatry, lying and rebellion and in the midst of this he declares that they did not find their way hopeless but instead found renewed strength for the journey. God is speaking about a disobedient people who had deliberately and determinedly turned their back on him and followed their own desires. They had pursued their chosen course so vigorously that they had become worn out. But even in their exhaustion they had somehow found the strength to continue. No matter the displeasure that they had incurred from God and the judgments that came as a consequence they could still dig deep and find the energy to continue down their path to destruction.

The truth is that these people put their trust in those things that gave them short term satisfaction and motivation, even though the result would be catastrophic. They could always find some benefit that would cause them to continue on their chosen course. We are surrounded by the illusion of those things that are attractive to behold but produce emptiness and loss in the longer term. The road we are on may be surrounded by glitz and glamour, public adulation and material success. In achieving these things we find motivation to press on. It is these illusory rewards that keep us going. When life gets hard and our path becomes almost unbearably difficult, the praise of men or a financial reward will give us the strength to keep on going until the time when we seek these benefits rather than the goal of the calling to which God has brought us. We may even choose a course of life which is clearly inconsistent with what we know God’s will to be and it is the little benefits along the way that keep us going, pursuing a goal we know to be wrong.

 God declares through Isaiah that he dwells on a high and holy place and with the contrite and lowly of spirit so that he can revive their spirit and their heart. The strength for the journey that God calls you to is first of all found in the High and Holy place. It is in that union with God that can only be found by holiness of life and character. Access to the holy place is through the blood of Jesus Christ but is maintained by holy character and lifestyle. Secondly God chooses to dwell with the lowly and contrite. He is not looking for the movers and shakers, the Christian celebrities who tour the revival circuit, but the lowly, self-effacing, humble and broken who are prepared to give themselves up to the plans and purposes he has for them.

The badges of success and accomplishment that the world has to offer may sustain you for a while. They may give you the illusion of hope and provide some meaning to the life you choose to live. But unless these things flow from a humble and contrite heart that is determined to live in obedience to the word of God, no matter what it requires they will fail and leave behind a vacuum that no amount of worldly rewards will fill. If you have become tired by the length of your road be careful to make sure that the road you are on is the right one, don’t just summon up the strength to go on. If you are on the wrong road take the first exit you see and start heading in the right direction.