Eagles and Turkeys

[immeasurable]. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary” (Isaiah 40:28–31).

There is nothing more draining than facing an impossible looking situation. It could be bills that aren’t paid, or a scary medical diagnosis, or even people who are making our lives miserable. In situations like that, we need to be able to soar above the circumstances.

Maybe you’ve heard the joke that it’s hard to soar with eagles when you live around turkeys. We’ll get to that problem with “turkeys,” but first let’s explore how the Bible shows that we can soar like eagles.

In order to soar like an eagle, we must first learn to “wait” for the LORD. Literally the word “wait” carries the idea of expectancy. In other words, it means putting our hope and confidence in God with an attitude of expectancy. We need to have a fixed anticipation that God is going to take care of us because “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

The verses (at the top of this article) are NOT talking about God increasing our strength. The phrase “gain new strength” literally means “changed strength.” Let me illustrate. Imagine coming home all hot and sweaty from digging in your garden in the summer heat. Normally you would shower, and then change into fresh, clean clothes. In other words, you exchanged old, smelly clothes for fresh, clean clothes. You don’t just shake out the dirty clothes and put them back on.

When we wait on the Lord, God will exchange our strength for His strength. The truth is that we need God to exchange our weak, limited, exhaustible strength for His strong, unlimited, inexhaustible strength.

Here is my paraphrase of Isaiah 20:28-31: “Those who are looking to the Lord with a sure expectancy that He will do what He promised, will have their weak strength exchanged for His awesome strength so they will be able to live supernaturally in the impossible situations they face, because they will have God’s strength instead of their natural weaknesses and normal responses to hard situations.”

Reality is that very few of us soar over hard things like eagles. Why is that? There are two possibilities.

#1 God hasn’t made us into eagles yet.

We need to ask God to exchange our “living death” for His eternal life. First, there must be an exchange of spiritual death for spiritual life. “You were dead in your trespasses and sins,… But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) (Ephesians 2:1, 4-5).

Are you an eagle or a turkey? Don’t be offended because we are all born turkeys. Only God’s grace can change turkeys (condemned sinners) into eagles (forgiven and changed sinners). “[God the Father] made [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,[when He suffered on the Cross] so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

#2 We are eagles who act like turkeys.

Here is a story that illustrates what I’m talking about. An eagle chick fell out of its nest as a very young eaglet. A farmer found the chick and decided to give it to a mother turkey on his farm who then raised it. 

As the young eagle grew it behaved just like all the other turkeys. It ate grain, it lived in a small pen and it didn’t fly, because turkeys can barely fly.

Then, one day the young eagle began to flap his wings a lot, much to the dismay of the others turkeys. A strong wind blew just as the eagle spread his wings. The wind caught the young eagle’s wings and lifted him out of the farm, up into the open spaces. Well, the uproar from the turkeys was so loud it caused the farmer to come running. He yelled up to the eagle, “I wondered how long it would be before you discovered the truth. After all, you are an eagle! You were made to soar high in the sky!”

God wants to swap your fear and anxiety for a calming peace. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7).

No matter what difficult situations may be weighing you down, you can soar above them by trusting Christ’s work of salvation and His unchanging presence.