A New Game Plan
Isaiah 40:30-31, “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
I enjoy keeping up with sports even though I get very little time to sit and watch many games from start to finish. The one thing I have learned living in Ohio and rooting for Ohio teams is this: If you keep the same losing game plan from year to year, you are going to continue to lose from year to year.
Somehow at the beginning of each new year, fans think that their team will be different and better this year even though nothing has changed. The truth of the matter is, a fresh start without a new game plan always produces the same old results.
The same is true in our spiritual lives as well. Just because we are on the brink of a new year does not mean that next year is going to be better just because it is a fresh start. It will only be better if we change our game plan to keep from making the same mistakes that we made last year.
In 2019, I really want my heart and my hope focused on the things of God. In this passage, they were struggling with unbelief, pride, and self-confidence. If we try to live our Christian life in our own strength, we will be weary and maybe even get to the point of passing out.
But if we can trust God and let Him lead us in 2019, we can run without being weary and walk without fainting. I think all of our failures in 2018 can be traced back to unbelief, pride, and self-confidence; so if we want 2019 to be different. If we want it to be better, we need to work hard on adjusting our game plan so that we can work on these three areas in our lives.
Maybe we continue to look at other Christians who are making the playoffs and finals and wish that we could have that opportunity. The good news is you CAN!
Galatians 5:16, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”
We faint while we are walking when we are trying to walk in the flesh. When we walk in the flesh, there is a battle going on inside. The flesh is fighting the Spirit; so at the end of the day, you faint from being in the middle of this war.
You want to run and not be weary? You want to walk and not faint? Add this tweak to your game plan. Walk in the Spirit.
