Vital and Fresh at Any Age
Planted in the house of the Lord, They will flourish in the courts of our God. [Growing in grace] they will still thrive and bear fruit and prosper in old age; They will flourish and be vital and fresh [rich in trust and love and contentment]; Psalm 92:13-14 (Amplified Bible, AMP) emphasis mine
As believers age, they don’t have to get worn out and tired. The Bible tells us that we can be alive and full of vitality in old age. The concept of growing old has been distorted. We can age without getting old. In other words, we can be just as sharp and full of energy at 90 as we were at 30. Age is just a number. It should be a measurement of experience gained, not ability lost.
Older people are not to be discarded. The latter years of a person’s life should be the most productive years because of everything that’s already been learned. Our lives should be building to a grand finale, not a sad, tired end. We should be growing and progressing in every area of life until we draw our last breath. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us that a person becomes disposable at a certain age. So many of the people that the Bible tells us were used by God were old by today’s standards.
Moses was 120 years old when he died, yet his eyesight was clear, and he was as strong as ever. Deuteronomy 34:7 (New Living Translation, NLT)
The Bible is full of people like Moses who aged but did not become old. Consider Joshua and Caleb, who possessed a nation in their eighties. Think about Abraham who became a father at 100 and who went on to father more children after that! Take note of Sarah, who became a mother when she was considered way too old to have children. Remember Noah, who started to build an ark at age 500. And who can forget Methuselah, who lived to be 969! We could also look at people in the New Testament like Anna and Simeon, not to mention the Apostle John.
With all these examples, why do we think we have to find an easy chair and let life pass us by when we reach a certain age? Why do we accept aches and pains as a natural course of growing older? No matter our age, we should continue to fight and resist the enemy, not accepting physical discomfort or limitations. Don’t buy the lie that you have to get weak and ineffective when you age. You are full of the Holy Spirit and the power of God. We don’t have to become worn out or fragile. Instead of retiring, we should be refiring! We can be full of faith and power, vital and fresh until the day we finish our earthly assignment and go home to heaven.
