2026 Sacred Whispers Blog

“He gives power to the faint, and to the one who has no might, He increases strength… those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles.”

Isaiah 40:29–31

THE MOMENT YOU THINK YOU CAN’T… AND THEN, AGAINST ALL ODDS… YOU DO

In the 1982 Ironman World Championship, the world watched something unforgettable unfold. Julie Moss, a college student who entered the race as part of a research project, had never imagined she would end up leading the competition. But as she neared the final miles of the marathon portion, having already swum 2.4 miles and biked 112, her body began to fail her. Her legs buckled. She collapsed. Spectators gasped as she crawled, inch by inch, toward the finish line.

Every attempt to stand brought another collapse. The heat blurred her vision as her strength was slowly being drained away. Runners passed her, including the woman who would ultimately win the race. But the greatest part of this story is: Julie Moss didn’t quit. With scraped knees, trembling arms, and a body that had no strength left to give, she crawled across the finish line.

Later she said something remarkably simple: “I kept going because something inside me refused to stop.”  Human strength had left her long before she finished. Something deeper, something she didn’t know she had, carried her through.

Her story mirrors the quiet miracle many believers experience: the moment when your own strength ends, but grace rises. When your endurance collapses, but God keeps you moving. When you discover that the strength carrying you is not your own.  Scripture identifies this mystery: “He gives power to the faint.” (Isaiah 40:29) The beauty of this promise is that God strengthens us, not after we recover or once we feel better. He strengthens us directly into the weakness itself.

And that is where the joy begins, not in triumph or victory, but in the sacred place where divine strength meets human limitation. God does some of His best work at the point where ours ends.

THE GOD WHO ENTERS YOUR EXHAUSTION

Isaiah wrote these words to a weary nation, not a triumphant one. Israel was exiled, discouraged, and convinced that God had forgotten them. Their strength wasn’t simply low; it was gone. Into that struggle, Isaiah did not offer motivational language or human optimism. He did not tell them to “try harder” or “push through.” He gave them God.

“He gives power to the faint… to the one who has no might, He increases strength.” (Isaiah 40:29)

This is divine paradox. God does not wait for you to be strong; He becomes your strength. He does not demand raw endurance from you; He supplies it. He does not demand self-driven resilience; He gives it as a gift.

The Hebrew verb translated “increases” describes a continual outpouring, a strength that replenishes and renews the one who is being increased.  It is the same idea David clung to when he said, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart.” (Psalm 73:26) Paul echoed this truth when he exclaimed that God was the direct source of his strength in weakness. He said in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “His strength is made perfect in [my] weakness.”  And even as Nehemiah reminded a broken and displaced people returning from exile that despite their previous condition of captivity, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10)

Strength does not begin with you. It begins with the God who remembers that you are dust. Sometimes God does not remove the exasperating season of challenges because He is seeking to reveal His sustaining strength. He does not prevent your weakness because He intends to display His power in it. In those times it is important that we wrap our hearts around this truth: Strength is not the absence of struggle; it is the presence of God in the struggle.

THE JOY OF BEING STRENGTHENED

There is a unique joy that rises when you realize you are being held by a strength not your own. This kind of joy is not loud or showy. Neither is it the jubilant joy that accompanies victory or celebration. It is something more austere; more penetrating.  The joy that becomes our strength is deeper and much more certain and long-lasting. This is the joy that comes when you suddenly realize: I should have quit by now, but I’m still standing. I should have fallen apart, but somehow I’m still here. I should have lost my hope, but faith keeps pushing me forward.

The joy of divine strength is not the joy of achieving; it is the joy of enduring. You may not always win the race, or finish first, or land the dream job, or see the highest returns or dividends.  You may not always get to take the victory lap, or be most celebrated among your friends and colleagues.  You may come in last, struggle the hardest, miss the mark, and fail to be recognized or appreciated.  Joy doesn’t need any of this to be present.  It doesn’t need any of this to strengthen you.  This is the joy that simply comes from discovering that God has not just chosen you, He is carrying you, and loves you and is carrying you from where you are, to where he has destined for you to be.

Isaiah’s promise, “They shall mount up with wings like eagles,” does not describe a sudden escape from difficulty. It describes a divine lift, a rising above circumstances that once pressed you down. Eagles do not escape the wind; they use it. God takes what should exhaust you and turns it into what elevates you.

Thomas Merton captured this beautifully when he wrote, “We are stronger than we know when we are carried by a strength we do not feel.” Every believer eventually learns this sacred truth. Not in victory, but in weakness. Not in triumph, but in exhaustion. Divine strength is clearest when human strength is gone.

THE EXHAUSTED ARE NOT DISQUALIFIED

Some of God’s greatest works are done through people who feel too tired to continue.

• Israel cried to God for 450 years under a successive number of Pharaohs.
• David ran from a maniacal king, enraged by jealousy for over 15 years.
• Jeremiah thought he was too young, and inconsequential to God’s overall plan.
• Elijah collapsed under a tree and asked God to let him die.
• Paul said he was pressed on every hand, perplexed, and struck down.

Yet the exhaustion of His strongest servants never frightened or deterred God. Weakness has never disrupted His plans. Fatigue has never disqualified a broken vessel that God has graciously chosen to use.  For each of the individuals above, they were strengthened by God in the middle of their wrestlings and tension.

• Elijah’s strength returned not when he “tried harder,” but when God touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” (1 Kings 19:7)
• David discovered endurance not by denying his weakness but by declaring, “The Lord is my strength and my shield.” (Psalm 28:7)
• Paul found fresh courage not through human grit but through divine grace: “When I am weak, then am I strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10)
• And the list could go on and on…

Over and over Scripture declares the same truth: Our weakness is not a barrier for God, it is His predestined opportunity to make His power known through us.

THEOLOGICAL WITNESS OF DIVINE STRENGTH

The consistent biblical revelation is this: When God strengthens His people, He is not enhancing their natural ability; He is replacing their inability with His abundant grace and power.  Over the many years of reading, loving and studying the Word of God, I have been constantly strengthened by verses like,

“The Lord is the strength of my life.” (Psalm 27:1)

“He makes my feet like hinds’ feet.” (Habakkuk 3:19)

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

What I have learned is that God does not cheer you from a distance; He empowers you from within. His strength does not arrive before the need arises; it meets you in the need itself. God strengthens you in the valley, and during the fight, not outside of it.  He infuses resilience into your heart and He plants courage in places where you thought you would crumble.

Divine strength does not always feel dramatic. Sometimes it comes as the quiet ability to take one more step, breathe one more breath, pray one more prayer, hold on one more day. That “one more” is often the difference between collapse and victory, and it bears the fingerprint of God.

PRAYER

Lord, I thank You for the strength that finds me when my own strength fails. Teach me to lean on what You provide and not what I possess. Lift me in the places where I have collapsed. Breathe endurance into the places where I’m tired. Let the joy of Your presence become the strength of my soul. And when I reach the limits of my ability, meet me there with Yours. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE

Today, take a few quiet minutes and write down a short list titled: “Strength I Didn’t Know I Had.”

List three moments in your life when God carried you farther than you thought you could go, or gave you strength you did not realize was in you at the time. These can be emotional, spiritual, relational, or physical moments; anything where, looking back, you now see His hand.

When you finish, choose someone close to you (a friend, family member, or fellow believer) and share just one of those moments with them. As you speak them out loud, you allow your own testimony to strengthen you again, and strengthen them as well. This practice is one of the ways yu can turn your memory into worship.