Aging is not for sissies

Numbers 27; Psalms 70–71; Isaiah 17–18; 1 Peter 5

Several years ago a younger Christian said to me, “It must be easier to be a Christian as you get older.” I wanted to laugh but didn’t. I’ve learned that youth has no idea what it is like to be old.

The psalmist knew. He had enemies that told him his life might as well be over. He wasn’t strong enough to serve God and God had forsaken him. I know that feeling. My spiritual enemy tells me I am useless and too old to do anything in the kingdom of God toward helping His family. The worst attacks come when I’ve had a few days of prayer that seem powerful and in the will of God. I may get hit with multiple temptations, or have horrible dreams, or feel as if God has abandoned me. Spiritual war increases to the point I want to go AWOL. No, being a Christian is not easier as I grow older.

Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent. For my enemies speak concerning me; those who watch for my life consult together and say, “God has forsaken him; pursue and seize him, for there is none to deliver him.” O God, be not far from me; O my God, make haste to help me! May my accusers be put to shame and consumed; with scorn and disgrace may they be covered who seek my hurt. But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge. With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come; I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone. O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again. You will increase my greatness and comfort me again. (Psalm 71:9–21)

These words tell me I’m not alone in this battle. They also tell me to keep on praising God and sharing with others His wonderful grace and power. Even with trials the Lord gives me victory through all storms of testing. His goodness never fails.

An important truth comes with aging — the reality that I cannot have victory any other way but in Christ Jesus. I’ve been a proud person and the battles of life have taught me that I’ve no reason for arrogance. He tells me . . .

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:5–11)

Another important truth is that life is not a straight line. It is up and down, high and low, suffering in trials and restoration, uncertainty and confirmation, weakness and strength, helplessness and being established. For me, the intensity increases as I age, including both the ups and the downs. Pride would have me share the victories yet humility insists that I, like Paul, also rejoice in those awful lows:

So to keep me from becoming conceited . . .  a messenger of Satan harasses me, to keep me from becoming conceited. I plead with the Lord about this, but he says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7–10)

APPLY: Don’t complain. Growing older isn’t easy, yet it means that day when I see Jesus face to face is getting closer.

Spiritual strength is for the helpless

The saying goes, “Things are never so bad as what they could be worse.” This is what God is saying to Jeremiah. This prophet has been rejected and returns home like a tired bird to its nest, only to find that his family and friends will not listen to him either. They speak kindly, but want him silenced, just like everyone else. God points this out, but gives this weary man no sympathy.

If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan? For even your brothers and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; they are in full cry after you; do not believe them, though they speak friendly words to you. (Jeremiah 12:5–6)

God does not deny that the prophet’s lot is difficult, but says that it will become even more difficult. Today’s devotional said that this was the answer Jeremiah needed. He needed to be braced, not pampered. He needed to persevere, not run for comfort.

Jeremiah is my favorite Old Testament prophet. I relate to him, and these verses related to a current trial in my life. I want comfort and escape, but God has been telling me to endure, even to stand up and fight this battle, not give in to self-pity or retreat. He even says it could get worse, and I’ve already seen that happen this week.

What I’ve also struggled with is my vacillation. Sometimes this trial has me standing strong in the Lord, and sometimes I am like Jeremiah and want to either give up or hide. It didn’t occur to me until reading this that God increases the pressure for a good reason. He does not want me to fight this battle in my own strength. Like Jeremiah, I’ve been able to “race with men on foot” but in doing that, I have become weary and complaining. Self-effort might be sufficient for some of it, but if the situation worsens, then what? If I rely on my own strength, I will surely fail.  

God appealed to the grace-strength in Jeremiah, not to his human strength or weakness. By God’s grace this prophet could face his trials and fight. He could contend with horses, and manage the thickets by the Jordan. He needed to remember that by grace he would be saved, not by self-effort.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

The Gospel is still the power of my life. I am saved and still being saved by the power of God, not my own doing or effort, and this is a gift so I cannot boast about my victories. I cannot win any battles apart from the mercy and grace of God. Iron resolution will not do it, even though the devotional writer errs in saying so. The power to endure all things comes from God. By bringing on even greater intensity in this trial, I am forced to rely on Him instead of myself — and my Savior knows this is the best way to get me through it.