How to grow old

I will sustain you and I will rescue you. — Isaiah 46:4

“How are you today, Mama?” I asked casually. My 84-year-old friend, pointing to aches and pains in her joints, whispered, “Old age is tough!” Then she added earnestly, “But God has been good to me.”

“Growing old has been the greatest surprise of my life,” says Billy Graham in his book Nearing Home. “I am an old man now, and believe me, it’s not easy.” However, Graham notes, “While the Bible doesn’t gloss over the problems we face as we grow older, neither does it paint old age as a time to be despised or a burden to be endured with gritted teeth.” He then mentions some of the questions he has been forced to deal with as he has aged, such as, “How can we not only learn to cope with the fears and struggles and growing limitations we face but also actually grow stronger inwardly in the midst of these difficulties?”

In Isaiah 46 we have God’s assurance: “Even to your old age and gray hairs . . . I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (v. 4).

We don’t know how many years we will live on this earth or what we might face as we age. But one thing is certain: God will care for us throughout our life. — Lawrence Darmani

Lord, please teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (See Psalm 90:12)

READ: Isaiah 46:4-13

Don’t be afraid to grow

old; God goes with you!

Bible in a Year: Numbers 15-16 and Mark 6:1-29