I’ve been thinking about some of the things the Lord showed us around the start of the New Year.

Strength. Process. Building up in His strength. Endurance.

In fact, that’s what I wrote about on the first day of 2019.

And yet if I look at myself, if I look at our life together, if I look at all the circumstances that have happened so far in 2019, if I take note of our current situations…. it sure doesn’t “feel” like strength right now. We’ve both been fighting tiredness, discouragement, physical weakness from sickness and I’m finally just now recovering from my fall earlier this year.

It sure “feels”like we’ve been weakened and wearied…

But this morning the Lord brought me back to Psalm 18:32, a verse that He highlighted at the start of 2019,

“It is God who arms me with strength,

And makes my way perfect.”

I sat there with my heart before the Lord and asked Him,

“Father, what about this strength? We feel so weak and weary right now. Quite the opposite. It sure doesn’t feel like a perfect kind of way right now.”

Then I quickly remembered how often times the enemy will attempt to make us feel like we’re not going to make it into those promises of the Lord, how he will often attack us in those areas where we are headed to discourage us, to delay us, or to get us to do something to take ourselves off track.

But this morning, regardless of our current circumstances, regardless of how Jason and I feel physically right now, I am declaring that we are bouncing back. We are “springing forward” — we are heading from weakness into a new strength that we have never known before.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time outside, doing some outside work, mowing, yard work. Something about the air, the sunshine, the work, the blue skies, the springtime seemed to aid in renewing me, refreshing me, encouraging me of what’s to come. It was good for my heart.

This morning, as I was pouring out my heart to the Lord, and I sat and waited and listened, I just about put my pen down, then I waited –and here is what came,

“I will restore you, My child — My children. You will see a new kind of strength you have never experienced before! I will restore what the locusts have taken, by my mighty right hand!”

Then I pictured a “crescendo” into this new strength of the Lord, and I heard these verses:

Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

And I also love this version of that verse…

Isaiah 40:31 (NLT) But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

What does “crescendo” mean?

Joel 2:25-26, “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall never be put to shame.”