God bless you in the exalted name of Jesus Christ, who promised Peter guidance in his old age (John 21:18).
I play cards at our local Senior Center, and I just might be the youngest one to do so. On the whole we are a fun-loving gregarious group just as apt to pay attention to the conversations as well as the card playing. We have an unspoken rule of being positive.
Although many older folks may grow resentful against the limitations and increasing aggravations associated with aging, we do not. Whenever someone complains about growing old, someone else usually reminds them that it’s better than the alternative! Isaiah offers some encouragement in this respect.
Isaiah 46:4:
And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar [grey] hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.
Knowing God’s promise to carry and deliver us, we should have the confidence to pray for the strength to show His greatness to everyone.
Psalms 71:18:
Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.
We need to remember that, as long as we live, the Lord has some ministry for us to perform for “this generation” and “to every one that is to come.” Since He has work for us to do, He has to provide the wherewithal for us to do it. We simply need the spiritual perception and awareness to ascertain what it may be.
The Scriptures abound with promises of blessing in old age. For you and I growing old should be an occasion for rejoicing and deepened commitment to whatever the Lord enables us to do.
Psalms 92:12-15:
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; 15 To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
Most everyone will sooner or later enter the time of old age. Paul admonishes the aged to rise to their calling.
Titus 2:2-3:
That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. 3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
Let’s echo the heartfelt prayer of the psalmist in Psalms 71:18. Earlier in Psalm 71 a similar prayer was spoken, “Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth” (Psalms 71:9). Our God will answer such prayers, offered with commitment in faith and sincerity. He certainly did for David who said: “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” The time of old age should be a time of happy harvest, because we have sowed the seeds that guarantee it.