"They go from strength to strength" (Psalm 84: 7).
There are various renderings of these words, but all of them contain the idea of progress. They grow stronger and stronger. Usually, if we are walking, we go from strength to weakness. We start fresh but before long the road becomes rough and the sun becomes hot. We must sit down to rest. But the Christian pilgrim, having obtained fresh supplies of grace, is as vigorous after years of toilsome travel and struggle as when he first set out. He may not be quite so elated and bouyant as he once was, but he is much stronger in all that constitutes real power. He may move slowly, but he moves more surely. Some gray-haired veterans have remained as firm and zealous in their grasp of truth as they were in their younger days; however, it must be confessed it is often otherwise. The love of many waxes cold, and iniquity abounds. But this is their own sin and not the fault of the promise: "The youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint" (Isaiah 40: 30-31). Fretful spirits sit down and trouble themselves about the future. "Alas," say they, "We go from affliction to affliction." Very true, you of little faith, but then you go from strength to strength also! You will never find a bundle of affliction which does not have sufficient grace bound up in the midst of it.