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Quick Jump: Web Links Age, Changes and Faith People change as they get older. Apart from the obvious external evidence of people ageing, there are other changes that come with age. People change in what they enjoy doing and also sometimes in their experience and attitude towards life. As well as our bodies gradually becoming weaker, our minds are also affected. We can become more likely to forget things. Furthermore, the way our minds work, and our attitudes to life, can be dynamically affected by several factors.
The first of these factors is the cumulative store of knowledge and life experience that we have stored within us which is constantly being augmented. We are often able to draw from our wisdom gained from both past mistakes and successes. The continual cumulation of life's burdens that grows as we age can cause a real challenge to our faith.
Hopefully as we reflect back on our life, we will recognise God’s faithfulness to us consistently throughout our lives, or at least His goodness to us for the length of time that we have known Him (not that God cannot work in our lives before we come to know Him). As we get older, we may reflect upon the importance of serving God in our life in genuine and active ways. For example, we might consider how to better encourage and help other Christians in need and how to share Christ in effective ways with those who do not know Him yet.
If we have had a difficult life, it may be harder for us to trust God and to recognise that He is faithful in both His attitudes and actions in our lives. This faithfulness is real, despite our experiences of disappointment and pain. Perhaps we have remained unmarried against our own desires and now have had to come to terms with why this has happened. Why have we remained lonely - does God really provide for His people or not?
Although there are no simple answers, believers should have courage and keep faith. Christ never said our lives would be easy. In fact, He warned His followers that life is hard and will involve sacrifices (for example, Luke 14:33, “...any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple”). We must acknowledge that there are pains and disappointments to face. Perhaps you may have carried a long standing problem or emotional pain. For example, some people who have been sexually abused earlier in life may still carry unhealed wounds. Such believers may have received prayer for these problems, but they have still had to face the reality that their lives have in some way been blighted.
God can and does heal us emotionally. This is our great hope - The Lord Himself is the bearer of our sorrows. Without this hope and the reality of God’s power working in the lives of people today, perhaps there would be little point in life. Healing takes time. Some wounds are very deep and some problems are complex and stubborn in their influence on our lives. We need to renew our hope and particularly our prayer and our seeking after God, in order to allow Him to renew our strength to continue on in our walk with Him.
Persevering, Finding purpose as we approach Death
Although we look older as we age, we do not always feel older. As we age, we inevitably get closer to death, and it is natural to question the point of life. Why live when we inevitably die? Of course, the Christian has an answer to this. We believe that when we die we will be with God and live on in a new resurrection body. Because we have repented (said sorry to God) of our sins - our moral and attitude mistakes - and because we have lived to please God, we can have faith that we will experience a reward for being obedient. For example, Matthew 25:23 says, “...you have been faithful...come and share your Master’s happiness”.
We may have fears and some doubts about death. We believe, but we may not be absolutely sure about what will happen to us when we die. However - surely we have no option but to trust God. In our weakest moments, we need to believe that there is a God who is good - one who is worthy of our hope. Surely such a God would be just and loving, and would care about the free beings that He has created. If we have sought after God and known His forgiveness for our mistakes, we can have confidence as we face death. As long as we do live, we must fear God by showing practical spiritual fruit in our lives - acting to serve and help others and sharing the hope of Christ with those we meet.
Our faith can be really tested as we age. This can happen when it “comes to the crunch”, and the inevitability of death strikes us as we further age. We can perhaps take encouragement from the fact that we do not always feel older as we age, despite our gradual physical demise. The fact that we feel very alive, even if we are very old, can encourage us that we were made to live eternally.
As we get older, we need to persevere in our faith, and to continue to resist the different temptations that will probably still bother us. Sometimes temptation might seem relentless - the same old temptations crop up again and again. We may reflect back on our lives and think - if only I had not done so and so, or if only I had done so and so... things would have been so different. Whilst we certainly learn from our experiences and mistakes, it is pointless to look back at life in a negative way. We need to know God’s forgiveness for all our mistakes and reach out for His love and His presence in our lives, regardless of our age.
Facing Failure and Being Used by God
As we face up to our own failures and foolishness in life, we may indeed have to accept the fact that things could have been different for us - perhaps much better. However, in God’s scheme of life and experience, there is grace, favour and hope. If it seems that there is little of your life on earth left to run, you can still know the hope of God. Whatever mistakes you have made[] and whatever happiness you have lacked, this hope is real and can make sense of many empty and wasted years.
As long as we are alive, we can know the real satisfaction of being used by God. Peace and joy can be released to us when we give encouragement and help to those who need to hear about God’s truth and love. The only position of hope for us is to accept the past as being exactly what it is - past. It is important to stay positive as we trust in God’s faithfulness and presence with us right now.
Even if we feel that we have achieved little or nothing in our lives - God is gracious and powerful; He can use us right now in very significant ways. Share with unbelievers about God, pray and minister to people, listen out for God’s calling as to where you should be and how you should be ministering and recognise that there are often opportunities all around us to help people. We just need to be prepared to see those opportunities and to go for them vigorously when they present themselves.
We can have good times in life, and bad. We should thank God for the good things we have had; it is sometimes easy to forget our good gifts and good life experiences. May God answer your prayer - that you would know and experience Him in a tangible way. Find people you can trust to confide in and ask people to pray for you. Do not be afraid or feel weak in asking for prayer support. There is not an ounce of shame or weakness in this position - just the spiritual light of an honest and open heart.
Death and combating fear
We all have to die sometime, but with God we have hope when we face death. If you are a Christian, and you know this with certainty, then you have eternal hope and peace, no matter what happens to you. Even if you are not healed from your illness, and your life, it seems, will be cut short, God is in control. He can be trusted.
In Luke 8:50, we find that where even someone was dead, Jesus healed them. For me this is ultimate proof that God is in control and that He is able to do what He wants with our lives. We are not all knowing like God, so we must recognise that our freedom lies in trusting in Him. Try to be open to God and to serve Him in your situation.
Fear of death is natural; even with our faith. We do not fully know or understand the absolute nature of what will happen to us when we die, even though we believe that God will look after us. There are people who go through such a terrible time at certain points in their life, that at those times, they would rather be dead, if given a choice. If you do want to live despite suffering, to me it proves that God is good and that there is something worth living for. However, in the end - we all die anyway, and as we have knowledge of the truth, we know that as long as we do live, it is only worth living for Him. Of course, there are material and experiential things in life that we enjoy and that God has given us, for example, relationships, pleasure, music and other fun things that we enjoy or appreciate.
We need to put the sufferings and joys of this world in perspective, developing peace and trust in God whatever experiences befall us. If you are dying of cancer, try to not see this as “tragic”. If death does occur, in one sense it is tragic. To leave behind suffering family and friends seems to be senseless - a waste without any purpose. However, God is able to repay us for our faithfulness and obedience to Him, as He promises in His word (for example, Revelation 22:12). He is also able to comfort everyone who suffers, whatever the circumstance.
We cannot lose God as long as we cling to him, and if we fade from this life, he will revive us. As the Word says, “The flowers fade, and the grasses wither, but the Word of the Lord stands forever.” The Bible also promises us new resurrection bodies (1 Corinthians 15:35-58). We have real hope after death.
Facing Death
You may have gone through much or most of your life without knowing God. Alternatively, you may feel that you have been a long-standing but ineffectual servant of God. Because of God’s Grace, you do not need to die with regrets, fear or guilt. God is forgiving. Furthermore, God is capable of using one person more in five minutes than others are used during their whole lives. If you are open to God and are proactively serving Him (for example, sharing the Gospel with others), you are doing all that you can and should do and with faith, you do not have to carry any regret.
If you are facing death, make the most of your last times. Use your time and money wisely and allow yourself to be used by God. Make sure you are right with Him and share your faith with others - bringing them to know Him. Things like this can bring meaning out of what otherwise seems a meaningless waste. Ultimately, we must trust God with this issue of meaning. Life might not always make sense, but God Himself does, and relationship with him also does. Many people die before they are even born - those who are aborted or who die in the womb before birth. This does not mean that they are any less valued by God. It does not mean that their lives are without meaning.
We have to trust in God; that He is in control. Being ill, and having the possibility of death hanging over you, is seriously traumatic. No one can deny this. If you are not a Christian, and are facing death, you cannot have the same hope and confidence that Christians can have. If you are dying and you do not know Jesus, why not check Him out now, and see if there is any truth to Christianity, while you still can? Surely it is wiser to do this now than to take a risk and just see what happens when you die. What if it’s true - and you die and end up going to hell? Web Links www.lineone.net/l1external/cgi-bin/l1external.cgi?http://www.hope.edu/aca demic/psychology/335/webrep2/crisis.html - Mid-Life Crisis. www.lineone.net/l1external/cgi-bin/l1external.cgi?http://members.tripod.co m/~Crystal_J/Mid-Life.html - Mid-life Crisis. WARP TO TOP! |
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