During Training Camp, my squad mentor Kate handed out letters to certain people from the squad she was currently mentoring. She told us she gave them our names, and if God called them to write to us they would. Well during camp I received a letter from a girl named Nora.
In the letter Nora gave me a word: Steadfast.
She also gave me a verse:
“He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.”
Isaiah 40:29-31
To be completely honest when I received this letter, I was confused. The words Nora gave me weren’t speaking to me like I expected them to. I felt as if they weren’t for me, as if maybe she had the wrong person. I continued to read the letter and the verse and think about the word steadfast throughout training camp expecting for the Lord to tell me something, and he didn’t.
This morning a week after I have returned home from camp I revisited the letter, and finally it started speaking to me.
I first prayed over the word steadfast and God reminded me that his love for me is so steadfast, that I need to always remember that he will be faithful in that. He then reminded me that everything he asks of me is out of his faithful love.
With those words he spoke to me, he told me to reread the verse Nora gave me, so I did. In the words, I found comfort, I found more of his steadfast love.
The verse really opened my eyes to what I have been doing since I got home from camp. I’ve been ignoring him, I haven’t been setting aside stillness and silence and time in the word. I’ve been saying to myself, “I don’t have time,” “I’ve worked every single day since I got home,” “I’m so exhausted.” I’ve been becoming weak. I haven’t been letting him in like I did at camp, and that’s not okay.
I have been stumbling and falling, but not looking to him to renew my strength. In order to run with him I have to spend time with him. I have to remember that although his love for me is steadfast, that unless my love for him is also steadfast he won’t give me the strength I am searching for. I will not get to spend the next 40 some days soaring on wings like eagles, I will be digging myself into a hole that I will not have the strength to get out of without him.
God told Nora to give me the word steadfast and Isaiah 40:29-31 not to help me get through training camp, but to help me get through the long hard weeks in between training camp and launch.
God wanted me to hear those words to make sure I would not get distracted while at home. God is making sure I go to him to renew my strength, and he is making sure I am going to spend time with him.
God wants me to have my strength fully renewed so I can run the World Race and not become weary, and that I will be able to walk in ministry and not become faint, but stronger with every step.