Thinking Long Term

Age and Aging

Old age is not a matter for sorrow. It is matter for thanks if we have left our work done behind us.

Thomas Carlyle 1795-1881, Scottish Philosopher, Author

Ps 92:10-15
But You have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil. And my eye has looked exultantly upon my foes, my ears hear of the evildoers who rise up against me. The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree; He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green, to declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. NASU

When you look back at your life one day, what will you see? How will you feel about your life? Will it be a feeling of satisfaction, or regret, or will you feel like you gave it your all, will you long to wish to relive some part of it? In Isaiah 46:3-4, God speaks to us today, “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, Who have been upheld by Me from birth, who have been carried from the womb: even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.

Now these words speak to us all today, young and old. They speak to the younger because of the necessity for them to see into the future, and to be rewarded for their lives. It speaks to the older because it reassures them that the life that has been well spent in search for God, will be remembered when the gray hairs begin to show, when the world might say their lives are washed up and over.

God says of the person that has invested their lives in the Courts of their God that they shall still flourish and remain green, and be, and I like this part, full of “sap.” That is that they are still full of life, they are still supple and tender and soft and able to grow and be relevant to the world with the Word of God.

What does God say that the grey haired will be doing? He says, they will be declaring from a life of faith that the Lord, He alone is God that He, and He alone was the Rock on which they stood that none could wash away. They will be declaring to their families and their world that the Lord God is trustworthy and that He is the one and only God able to save and preserve life. That He is Pure and Holy and the one and only true and Living God.

And when you look back will you thank Him for the victories and the scars, the battles and the blessings? Only if you have lived for Him will you have this faith and feel this reassurance, no regrets, only Praise and Glory to God…God Bless.

Pastor William