The Soul's Eagle-Flight
“r I that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles.” There is a ring in this passage like the blast of a bugle. He makes a very great mistake who supposes that the word “wait” implies an indolent passivity. The Hebrew word has brawn and bone in it; its signification is primarily to be strong — strong enough to hold out under pressure. Thence the word came to signify patience as the opposite of discouragement and peevishness. When a soul is ready to do God’s will, and to submit cheerfully to God’s discipline, and to receive such fulness of supply as God is willing to bestow, that soul may be truly said to “wait on the Lord.” It is a great grace, and it leads to a great glory.
The man who thus waits on God renews his strength. He does more; he receives a wonderful inspiration. He “shall mount up with wings as an eagle.” Naturalists tell us that the special power of the eagle is in his wings. He can fly in the teeth of a gale, and go out on long voy agings towards the clouds, and play the aeronaut for hours without weariness. His “conversation is in the heavens.” The sparrow twitters from the housetop; the dove is content to abide in the forest; but eagles are children of the skies, and playmates of the storm. Even their nests are on the mountain crags.
So God means that every soul which waits on him shall sometimes soar. Not creep, or grovel in the muck of worldliness, or crouch in bondage to man or devils, but rise above all these baser things into the atmosphere of heaven. When a soul binds itself to God, it finds wings. Such an one has a citizenship in the skies. He catches inspiration from the indwelling Spirit. He rises above the chilling fogs of doubt, gains a wide outlook, is the soul’s eagle-flight. 235
filled with ennobling thoughts, and actually feels that he is an heir to a celestial inheritance. He out/lies the petty vexations that worry the worldling, and the grovelling lusts that drag the selfish and sensual soul down into the mire. His soul-life is hid with Christ in God. What to him, in such holy hours, are the fear of man, or the greed of gold, or the thirst for applause, or the sting of poverty, or the apprehension of death? Why should he chafe or fret his spirit with the petty anxieties that worry poor creatures who live without God and without hope? What cares the eagle, as he bathes his wing in the translucent gold of the sunbeam — for all the turmoil, the smoke, the clouds, or even the lightnings that play far beneath him? He flies in company with the unclouded sun. So a heaven-bound soul, filled with the joys of the Holy Spirit, flies in company with God.
Brother in Christ Jesus! you may realize these happy experiences, if you will but wait on him, if you will but knit your soul to Jesus. You will be surprised to find what an uplift there is in your religion. You will discover how it can carry you above base and sensual desires; how it can give birth to pure and holy meditatioDS; how it can kindle joy in seasons of dark adversities and bereavements; how it can keep your hope as serene and shiniog as the morning star. Strive after this, by living less on self, and more on Jesus. Live more like a son of God or a daughter of God, with the full feeling of adoption. Set your affections on things above. Don’t count these perishable things to be y7our treasures. Seek better ones in heaven. So shall prayer, and Bible-study, and the daily victory over sin, and the doing of God’s will, renew your strength. You will mount up with wings as eagles, until you grow heavenly -minded — “which is life and peace.” This is the “higher life” to which Christ calls every believer. And when you and I are inclined to nestle down in indolence and self-indulgence, God “stirs up our nests” and bids us fly towards him.