GROW OLD WITH ME

"Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ" ~Phil.1:6 (Life verse)

 

“Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made. Our times are in his hand who saith, 'A whole I planned, youth shows but half; Trust God: See all, nor be afraid!” ~Robert Browning (Browning (1812–1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of the dramatic monologue made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.)

 

"I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread." ~Ps.37:25 

 ONCE UPON A TIME

  "A person’s days are determined;
    you have decreed the number of his months
    and have set limits he cannot exceed." ~Job 14:5

" Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. " ~Psalm 139:16

 "Our days may come to seventy years,
    or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
    for they quickly pass, and we fly away." Psalm 90:10

Come!  Grow old with me

A quick reminder that God is the same as yesterday, He is the same today, and will be the same tomorrow.
  I on the other hand am the one that is not the same as yesterday, each day I'm not the same and tomorrow I may be different.

As I look back on my life, the Lord has done a phenomenal job at taking care of me.

I WAS YOUNG!

  Every year close to my birthday month I have been making it a point to take personal inventory of the blessings I have received from God since I was born. 

The main point being that after all these years, God has not abandoned me and has provided what He deemed best for me.  Yes, for me!   The reality is that I am getting old and I cannot escape or run away from it! 

The next few years I will be needing him even more. it’s  impossible to escape the reality of old age and the infirmities that arrive.  I often think that the ills of old age are constant reminders to not get to comfortable in this world and long for Heaven.

It will be God waking me up each morning and starting me on each day.  “He may not come when you want Him, but He’s always on time!” His time to provide.

One positive result that I found quite pleasant in growing older is the fact of not caring so much about what others think of me.  I can do what is important to me. My choices are based on what I can do, or am interested in doing.

Isaiah 46:4

^" Even to your old age I am he,
    and to gray hairs I will carry you.
I have made, and I will bear;
    I will carry and will save."

 Growing older is not a choice I have in life.

  When I was  young, I hardly gave death a  thought. 

The aspects of getting older are difficult.  I am reminded of the reality,I am not as strong as I used to be.  I don't have the energy of youth and some things I used to do, I don't want to do.  There are things I still can do, but take longer.  Over time I have noticed hearing deficits and beginnings of sight decline.

My thoughts sometimes go to other places I wish them not to go.

When I was young, I did not appreciate many aspects of life.  "Youth is wasted on the young." 

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." ~2 Cor.4:16

Spiritual condition health checks are becoming more frequent.

  ^"But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth." ~2 Timothy 4:17

God Is Still Working On Me to Conform to His Image,

  I often recall my girlhood and early adult years and gain perspective how those past difficulties and experiences were also encouraging spiritual influences in my life and how the negative and positive facts of those experiences were used of God to forge on in my life journey.

So here is what I know:

God IS near.  God IS here.  God IS there.  God IS in this moment. God IS present.  I am IN His care. Nothing can separate me from His love. THIS IS WHAT SUSTAINS ME, knowing this.

  Back to Robert Browning's poem on growing old and if you are into poetry and want to see all 32 parts GROW OLD WITH ME:

Ay, note that Potter's wheel,

That metaphor! and feel

Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay,—

Thou, to whom fools propound,

When the wine makes its round,

"Since life fleets, all is change; the Past gone, seize to-day!"

Fool! All that is, at all,

Lasts ever, past recall;

Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure:

What entered into thee,

That was, is, and shall be:

Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure. 

My experience in unpleasant circumstances prepared me for a better job!

 WHOM SHALL I FEAR song

 

 

 

 

 

 


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