Don’t let anyone try to fool you. Growing old is NOT easy. And if you share my same life season, you know this to be fact.
Others look at us and make statements like “You should do this. You have so much free time on your hands.”
Yes, most of us have more free time on our hands, and many are in the best financial shape of their lives. But, we all know, there’s much more going on.
Our wrinkles are multiplying, and our skin has become thin and translucent. Muscle aches are a daily problem. (Muscles we didn’t even know we had, I might add!) Many of us are carrying around more pounds (that we can’t get rid of) on a body turned frail. All while we deal with fading memories.
If we allow ourselves to stare at the difficulties long enough, the picture before us can appear quite bleak. But we must remember that these problems are not new to our time. They have, in fact, plagued every generation since the Fall.
If we desire to finish well, we must guard our hearts and minds by keeping our eyes on Christ. Rather than succumbing to pity parties over the loss of precious memories, the physical frame of our youth, and all the things we remember as good, we must turn to the truth of God.
Six Biblical Truth
THERE IS A “GOOD” OLD AGE
“Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.”
Genesis 25:8
The truth is that while there are some bad things associated with old age, the picture is far from bleak and hopeless. Indeed, the Bible tells us there is a “good” old age.
To help turn our eyes from all the “bad” we see happening to our aging bodies, we can fix our eyes on the “good” old age by reading of the many blessings that come to those in this season –blessing such as abiding contentment (1 Timothy 6:6), increased wisdom (Proverbs 3:13), and unshakable faith (Psalm 138:8).
GOD IS GREATER THAN TIME
God’s promises extend beyond all the limits of time. And praise the Lord, through Christ, time’s curse has been overturned.
The truth is that Jesus came so that we may have abundant life (John 10:10). ABUNDANT LIFE. It was never His intention that we spend our “senior” years in life-sapping fear, regret, or sadness. Jesus came to bring life, no matter our season!
A BATTLE IS RAGING
The one, pressing desire of Christian grandparents is that their children and their children’s children and all the generations of their family will know God and be together with Him when our days on earth have ended.
The truth is that we are in a battle. In this season where even, the simplest things often take much time and energy, we must not allow ourselves to be lulled into complacency and inactivity. No. We must remember that a battle is raging right now, all around us for the souls of our family members. The enemy is determined. He pulls no punches. In fact, he is doing everything in his power to win our family members – distracting us, pulling our eyes off Christ, and working to render us ineffective is passing a heritage of faith to the next generations.
We cannot fight this battle with our own strength. It is a spiritual battle that requires spiritual strength. To fit ourselves for battle, we must spend time with God in prayer, in the Bible, and by way of the other various spiritual disciplines.
THE RACE CANNOT BE RUN IN OUR OWN STRENGTH
Speaking of strength. In this season of our lives, when we hear the word strength, we immediately think what strength? For many of us, simply crawling out of bed or bending over to pick something up is a chore.
In this season of aging, we train ourselves to think beyond our own mortal strength.
The truth is that there is strength. It is a strength beyond our imaginings, and it is available to us even now.
That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.
Ephesians 3:16
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21
These passages in the book of Ephesians (and these are just two) tell us that we are strengthened with power through His Spirit. Not only that, but that this power resides in and is at work within us.
Please hear that once more. Even in the frailty of old age, we have access to God’s mighty strength and power – at. all. times!
When the days are hard and weariness looms, we would do well to reflect on Caleb’s example.
And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming.
Joshua 14:10-11
From this testimony preserved for us in Scripture, we can be encouraged by an eighty-five-year-old man who finished his days strong. May we, like Caleb, learn to quit striving in our own strength, and instead daily call upon the strength of God.
THE RACE REQUIRES EFFORT
As much as I would like it to be true, we simply cannot give God to those we love, not our children, nor our grandchildren, no one.
The truth is only God can bestow God. We are powerless to “give our faith to future generations.”
Much of the work required for building a legacy of faith for our future generations is God’s. He imparts strength. He supplies with power. He alone can save. We must trust Him with His work.
However, that does not release us to sit back on that trust doing nothing. God has a work. We have a work. Our work? First, determine to do the work. Then see it through. Be intentional. Be faithful. See it through – all the way to the end.
To finish well, we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and cling tightly to His truths. We must remember that slowing down because our body aches or quitting because our energy tank is empty are not options. We have work to do. We must keep going all the way to the finish line.
THE CHOICE IS OURS
The truth is God grants us the freedom to choose. We have a choice.
We can choose to spend this season of life selfishly, indulging ourselves, because we’ve earned it. We can choose to expend our energy mourning the fleeting time, bemoaning the changes in our physical frame, and trying to hold on to what was.
Or we can make the choice to live it biblically and finish well.
What Now?
I will be the first to admit that none of this is easy. In fact, it is extremely hard work.
One might say it’s a battle of the visible (deteriorating bodies, loud cultural philosophy of aging) against the invisible (the spiritual realm). In such a battle it is much easier to give our attention to what we see (the visible) and neglect what we do not see (the invisible).
In the frailties of our aging bodies and minds, we must not fall victim to tending the visible and ignoring the invisible.
The enemy of human souls is on the attack. Relentless in his efforts, he will do everything in his power to distract us, pull our eyes off Jesus Christ, and render us ineffective in influencing our families for Christ.
Which choice will you make?
As the new year begins, which truths will you cling tightly to in the coming months?
