My buddy Tucker collects eagle figurines. Some are carved, some are cast. He’s easily got a few dozen of them in a display case, and others throughout his home.
It’s kinda his thing.
Eagles often represent freedom, and he’s come through a lot of bondage in his “before” life. Perhaps that’s the connection.
In the book of Isaiah, eagles represent soaring above weakness and exhaustion in God’s strength:
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.
Isaiah 40:31 NLT
Perhaps that’s Tucker’s connection with them.
Or maybe it’s because of the way an eagle fights.
Eagles sometimes prey on snakes. But you’ll never see an eagle fight a snake on the ground (at least not one that values its life).
Why?
Because the ground is the snake’s territory. It is familiar with it, it has tactics, it is stronger there. The eagle would never win. It isn’t built to.
Instead, the eagle swoops down, grabs the snake, and flies it back up to the sky. Back to its own territory where the snake is out of its element. In the sky, the eagle wins.
Perhaps that’s why Tucker connects with eagles.
Maybe we need to learn to fight like eagles as well.
We spend so much time trying to fight the snakes in our lives on their own turf it’s no wonder we’re struggling and not soaring anywhere.
Like the eagle, I’m no match for the snakes of life—those things the enemy brings against me. I am out of my element in this world.
But those things are no match for my God.
So like the eagle, my battles are best fought above, where things that come against me have to stand before my God and be reminded of their inevitable defeat.
Today, be an eagle. Those who trust in the Lord find new strength, on territory that’s unfamiliar to the enemy of our soul who seeks to destroy our very lives.
We need to quit trying to fight in our own strength, with our own resources. We need to turn our struggles over to God and trust his plan for our lives.
Simple? Not hardly. But neither is wielding a knife in a gunfight.
And too often that’s what we try to do on our own. Better to lean on the Lord.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones.
Isaiah 40:31 NLT
Be an eagle. Stop allowing the enemy to keep us on its level, and make everything that stands against us, stand up against our God. It won’t stay standing very long.
That’s worship.
–Pastor Steve.