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I. We have here UNAIDED NATURE AT ITS BEST PROVING A DISMAL FAILURE. Youths and young men are the personification of activity, agility, vigour, and "go." Their eye is not dim, nor their natural force abated. Moreover, the word here employed signifies the pick of the people, the flower of the youth, the very first and foremost. These are the strongest of the strong, the bravest of the brave. But what happens to them? Even these shall faint and be weary; even these shall fail and fall. It is in spiritual things that this disappointment is most to be deplored.

1. This is a picture of those who, starting in their own strength, are presently disillusioned. Here, then, is a picture of ourselves in our unregenerate condition.

2. This is a picture, too, of how we were when, having been convicted of sin, we began to try to cleave our own way to heaven, and to pave it too; when from self-complacency we turned to self-righteousness.

3. I see here, also, an all too accurate picture of some true Christians. The boastful Christian is represented here, the man who fancies that his native courage will carry him through, who imagines that his wide experience will suffice in his extremity, who supposes his rigid orthodoxy is enough.

4. There are some well-nigh prayerless Christians, too, who seem to imagine that since they are already converted to God, and have had great experience of His dealings, they need no longer be as fervent and as frequent at the mercy-seat as in early days.

II. PRAYERFUL DEPENDENCE UPON GOD MEANS UNQUALIFIED SUCCESS. "They that wait," etc.

1. What is this waiting upon God?

(1) It involves humiliation and lamentation, a consciousness of need, a confession of weakness, an acknowledgment of sin. Do not think to get to the other stages except by this route. It is most unwise to seek to build a castle in the air, of even on the sands. Deep digging must precede lofty building.

(2) Then comes supplication, an earnest pouring out of the inmost heart to God.

(3) Mingled with the supplication is expectation.

(4) Yet with supplication and expectation there is resignation.

(5) There is not necessarily inaction; indeed those that wait upon the Lord are the very ones who are most in earnest, and most active.

2. What is the result of waiting upon God?

(1) "They shall renew their strength." This means that they shall change their strength. They shall put off their own threadbare, worn-out, poverty stricken strength, and they shall be clad with strength as with a garment, a garment that has been woven in celestial looms. It means among other things, that the strength they have, God-given, shall be adapted to special circumstances, and applied to peculiar conditions. I know how possible it is to have a goodly measure of strength, and yet not know how to use it. Those who wait on the Lord are taught spiritual economy. They make the most of the little they have, and by using it, it is increased. They are as those who, having a long journey to undertake, have made arrangements previously that at each stage there shall be a flesh horse awaiting them.

(2) "They shall mount up with wings as eagles," that is, they shall fly. I have often wondered what the sensation of flying may be like. I have nothing to guide me except sundry dreams. It is a most delightful sensation, except when it ends, and then you wish you had not gone in for it at all. Alas! that so many of our fellow-men have set their minds on flying. They have invented flying-machines, so-called, with which they have almost invariably till now courted disaster. I know a flying machine worth all of these. I will not soar to heaven on wings of wax, which melt as they get near the sun, but on wings which God supplies, wings of hope, and faith, and prayer, and praise.

(3) "They shall run," and however much they run, and however fast they run, they shall not be weary. What wonderful progress those make who trust God.

(4) "They shall walk and not faint." Divine strength enables us for patient continuance in well-doing. What is the secret of all this? God is at the bottom of it. Compare verse 6 with verses 10, 12, etc. There is nothing impossible to those who love God.

(T. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

WEB: Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;