This Week’s Study Guide: The Waiting Game

February 7th 2021 ~ 5th Sunday after Epiphany

Isaiah 40:21-31

The Rev. Dr. Robert de Wetter

This short study guide is meant to help you deepen your understanding of what Isaiah has to say to us about the times in life in which we have to wait.  You might even consider sharing this exercise with someone else and have a discussion.  There are no right or wrong answers to the questions below.  Enjoy. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.  robert@snowmasschapel.org  Blessings and prayers

1. Take some time to reflect on the times in life you have had to wait for something or someone.  Choose one time that was about waiting for something joyful and another that was very difficult.  Briefly describe those occasions below, what was happening, what you were feeling, what was going on in your faith life.
2. Read Isaiah 40:21-31 twice out loud, slowly, from any version of the Bible.  After you have read it twice, did anything jump out at you?  Describe here.
3. Robert discussed the importance of remembering the story of God.  Think for a moment.  If you had to tell someone the story of God, what would you say?  How might remembering the story help you in times of waiting.
4.  Read verses 22 to 26 of chapter 40 of Isaiah.  What do these verses say to you about the power of God and that God is incomparable to anything or anyone else.  What does this say to you about how to approach waiting in life?
5.  Read verse 28 of chapter 40 of Isaiah.  God is everlasting.  Whatever it is we are waiting for, however we might be struggling, is temporal.  Is this encouraging?  How and why?
6.  In chapter 28 we find, “God gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”  What are your limits?  Is it hard to acknowledge your limits?  How might you ask God for God’s strength?  Verse 30 speaks of God renewing our strength.  
7.  In verse 30 Isaiah shares an image of an eagle soaring.  What might Isaiah be saying to you about the times in your life you have had to wait through this image?