Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Isa. 40:27-29
Gracious heavenly Father, you are so amazingly patient and kind with us, all the time, even when we lapse into our complaining and whining ways—like your children in Isaiah’s day. Nobody likes to be on the wrong end of a whine. But you never roll your eyes at us. You will never get irritated with us or shame us. Even when you discipline us, it’s in love—unwavering, unabated love.
The only look you give us reminds us of your welcoming heart. Though you find no pleasure in our complaining, you do find great pleasure in your Son; and because you have hidden our lives in Jesus, you find great delight and pleasure in us. Your constancy and compassion are our bread and water.
Though there are times when it feels like we’re being ignored—like you must be too busy with other things to notice us and intervene in our hard stories, precisely at those moments we hear you say to us in the gospel, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and you will find rest, because I will give you rest.” You promise rest and you give what you promise. What a glorious and gracious God you are. Forgive us when we’d rather stew in our self-centered whine than drink the new wine of the gospel.
Lord Jesus, you took the ultimate abandonment of the cross that we might be assured we will never be disregarded or abandoned. Though we get tired and weary, you don’t. Though we get disgusted with our weakness, you don’t.
Though you may not answer us the way we want you to answer or when we want you to answer, you promise to give us all the power and strength we wait on you, and to love and serve others. Turn our whining into worship this very day, O gracious and ever-present Lord. So very Amen we pray, in your loving name.
