Thoughts: Hannah's Blog

but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. – Isaiah 40:31 NIV

This is a very familiar verse and many might even have it memorised. When I was reading the NLT version the other day, it read as “But they who wait upon the Lord will get new strength.” as I was passing through, reading that, I felt something is different here and then I remembered it was renew in NIV and new in NLT. (Nothing wrong with that)

I tried to recollect what it was in Tamil “புதுப்பெலன்” It also means new strength. I had always thought renewal to mean restart or refill. License renewal or recharging a battery, or like I have a cup that has gone empty or I’m running on a car whose fuel has gone empty, I can run no more, so I need God’s help in refilling so I can start running again.

But reading it as “new” strength got me thinking differently. So I decided to look into it more to figure out if new strength means something different from my original understanding. I came to know that in some commentaries, it talks about an exchange of our weakness with God’s strength. Not our own strength, but God’s strength.

As I was going through the different translations, I came across this one:

கர்த்தரை நம்புகிற ஜனங்கள்
புதிய சிறகுகள் முளைக்கின்ற கழுகுகளைப்போல மீண்டும் பலம் பெறுகின்றனர்.

This one is the Easy-to-Read Tamil version that says they will receive strength again like that of the eagles that grow new feathers (my rough attempt at translation!) And this reminded me of the story which I had heard earlier about the Eagle’s molting process.

Eagle molting is the natural, ongoing process of replacing old, worn-out feathers with new ones, occurring annually for flight feathers and over two years for body feathers. This crucial process helps an eagle maintain its physical condition and achieve adult plumage, with flight feathers being replaced symmetrically to ensure balanced flight. Younger eagles undergo a series of dramatic molts to develop their iconic adult plumage, while mature eagles continually molt to keep their feathers healthy. [Courtesy Google]

And this added a new dimension to my understanding of the verse.
The old feathers must go in order to make way for new feathers to grow. We need to stop relying on our own strength to get things done – that’s when we get weary and worn out. On our own, we can’t make it. We don’t have to. Let us respond to Gods invitation today – the greatest exchange offer. Get his strength in place of ours. 

Maybe it is like replacing our batteries instead of recharging them or maybe it is replacing with a newer better model of the battery so we could do things that we could never do before.

What are your thoughts or understanding of this verse? How has this verse ministered to you? Do let me know, let’s learn from each other.