Are you tired? I am. BUT I have within me the One who “fainteth not, neither is weary.”
“When Gideon came to the Jordan, he and the three hundred men who were with him crossed over, exhausted but still in pursuit” (Judges 8:4 NKJV).
Exhausted But Still in Pursuit!
Sharecropping which took root in the aftermath of slavery and remained prominent in the south during my childhood, was deeply entrenched racist ideology. We were not supposed to break free from that system which also took variant forms in the other geographic regions of the country.
“Even the youths shall faint and be weary”
The many years of back-breaking hard labor in cotton, tobacco, peanut, and corn fields wore on my dad until he had to be hospitalized for seven months with a severe spinal condition, while still a young man in his mid-40s. We were all exhausted. But Daddy encouraged us with his faith in a God-inspired vision that all his children would be college-educated and “escape” from the enslaving sharecropping system.
“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength”
We prayed constantly, prepared via consistent reading/studying, and like Gideon in pursuit of the Midianites and their two kings, we came to some frightening “Jordans,” but we persevered and remained in pursuit. Gideon and his 300 men routed the entire 120,000-man Midianite army by staying in pursuit. My seven brothers and sisters and I stayed in pursuit of our Daddy’s vision. And just as he envisioned, all of us graduated from college!
“They shall mount up with wings as eagles”
Six of us completed undergraduate school at North Carolina Central University, the home of the mighty flying “Eagles!” Now, whatever you are going after—that dream, goal, ministry, business, or educational venture, you may be tired now but wait on the LORD and STAY IN PURSUIT!
Focus Quote: “Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faintest not, neither is weary? There is no searching of His understanding” (Isaiah 40:28 KJV).
