Too many birthdays?

My Dad used to explain his mental and physical problems with “I’ve had too many birthdays.” He was 90 when he died. Now at my age I sometimes say the same thing, particularly as I read challenges such as “Do you have zeal for a worthy cause? Is there some good for which you are being slandered? Or is your routine so harmless in this evil world that it fits nicely with the way things are going, and so nobody is asking you anything?”

Yes, I know that Moses didn’t get started until he was 80 and that God can renew the strength of those who wait on Him…

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28–31)

The Bible says He can. My faith says He can. Yet this is not gold-stamped with a seal to make it certain. Many days I feel faint and without strength, asking for renewal. Over my desk is a painting of eagles with a reference:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:1–5)

Because I appear to be younger, expectations from others are higher than the way I feel. I don’t want ‘renewed youth’ to meet those expectations, but I do want to have what is needed to do what God asks of me, even on those days when it feels like I’ve had way too many birthdays.

Others verses echo the cries of those with white hair and bodies that no longer cooperate with ambition, or even wipe it out:

Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent. (Psalm 71:9)
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? (Psalm 71:17–19)
The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. (Psalm 92:12–15)

The Bible shows that the average lifespan in OT times was less than my age now. We live in a country whose average now is lower than my age also. How true what Moses wrote:

For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. (Psalm 90:9–10)

And how true what my hubby often says; we are all terminal. A friend told us of his sister’s death last week. She was getting ready to go somewhere with her spouse, and put on one shoe, then left this earth. Some die violently, or because of a painful illness, or an accident. We don’t get to choose (despite efforts to make it lawful) but even so, it still happens. Best option:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

PRAY: Jesus, no matter my age, afternoon fatigue, or all other ‘symptoms’ of being old, eternal life began the moment You called me into a personal relationship with You, a relationship that changed my life here and my destiny when this life is over. This love affair with You makes such a difference in the way I look at too many birthdays!

Revival vs. Renewal?

 

These days many Christians are praying for REVIVAL. In the OT, two Hebrew words are translated into that English word. One of them means becoming well or alive after being ill or dead. The other similarly means “to return, go or come back to a place, condition, or activity where one has been before.” These words are used nearly 400 times. Its Greek equivalent and variations is used just over 50 times in the NT.

When applied to God reviving His people from spiritual deadness, the psalmist asks:

Psalm 85:5–7. “Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.”

The Lord’s answer could very well be these words:

Isaiah 57:15–19. For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before me, and the breath of life that I made. Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry, I struck him; I hid my face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the Lord, “and I will heal him.”

And our response should be like the prophet’s prayer:

Habakkuk 3:2. “O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.”

Interestingly, the idea of spiritual revival is not given space in the NT. Before Christ came, God’s people had problems with backsliding. They were saved from sin’s bondage in Egypt and given a new life in a new land with laws to guide them in living as His children, yet they failed repeatedly and needed restoration. When Jesus came, lived, died, rose again, and ascended to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to live in us, giving all who believe a new life. The term is “born again” and because of this rebirth, we are like babes, starting out in Christ and living each day in a continual renewal. The old is put off and the new has come:

2 Corinthians 5:17. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Colossians 3:8–10. “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

This renewal is make possible by the power of God’s Word. He changes the way we think. This is not a revival or a return to a former way, but a newness that transforms a person’s life!

Romans 12:2. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Even to old age, this renewal is continual. 2 Corinthians 4:16 confirms it: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Revival and renewal give me two images. One is that of a good child who starts acting like a brat and is disciplined to go back to being a good child. The other is that of a new baby who is growing to adulthood. There is stumbling and mistakes along the way, but that person is renewed, not revived back to being a baby but picked up and helped to continue the process of maturing.

The words seem the same but the idea of revival is more of an OT term whereas renewal is how the NT describes spiritual growth. I do pray for revival in the sense that I want God to draw His people into a deeper relationship with Him. I might be using the wrong word in those prayers, but I’m certain God knows what I mean!

LATER: My hubby said this was "hard to understand" and my reply is this: The OT required God to revive His erring people, but the NT requires God's erring people to repent. When we talk about or pray for revival we want God to wake up the church but need to remember that He does this in us through our repentance, not some sort of 'zap'. He fills us with His Spirit in renewal but our part is vital. 1 John 1:9. Unless we give up our sins, we are stuck in our deadness.