Power to the Faint

You might fairly complain that this verse sounds like an offer for other people. Dinner still has to be made, the homework still has to be done, and there is still the email you owe. On top of that comes two more hours of being kind to somebody. By four in the afternoon you are running on nothing and pretending you are not, and a verse about power for the faint sounds as if it was written for people who are already coping.

But look at who the verse names: "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." It mentions only two groups of people: the faint, and those with no strength left. If you were holding up well, this verse would pass you by. Being worn out does not prove you are failing. It is what makes this promise yours.

Isaiah has set up the verses around it to make that clear. The verse before is about God: "the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary." The verse after is about people at their strongest: "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall." The chapter puts the fittest people on earth on the floor before the promise arrives, so that nobody reads it as an extra boost for the strong. Then comes the one condition: "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength." The Hebrew word for wait is related to the word for a twisted cord, so it carries the sense of binding yourself to something.

So do the thing that feels like the opposite of strength. Take the one task you have dragged through the whole week, and ask somebody by name to help you with it today, without saying sorry first. Admitting that you have no strength left does not shut you out of this verse. It puts you right where God has promised to give His strength.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 109 is Brought From Lodebar (2 Samuel 9:8).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna