When I Am Old and Grey

I wonder if you consider yourself to be old. I know some people who are a lot older than me, and yet they seem to get increasingly more and more full of life and excitement about the Lord as the years go by.

In our church we have a Tuesday fellowship meeting every two weeks and, after enjoying our lunch, we have a time of worship, and then, just before the Bible talk and prayer time, we ask someone to share a little bit about their life and how they came to know the Lord Jesus.

One lady, who was born during the second world war, said she first heard the gospel from a team of missionaries who came to her area of northern France when she was thirteen. She gave her life to Jesus. She eventually married one of the team and was a pastor’s wife for 58 years here in England.

Although now a widow, she has recently volunteered to be a street chaplain and is eager to share the gospel in the outreach to her area of York. She said her favourite verse was “Even to your old age and grey hairs I am he, 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.” (Isaiah 46:4).

Older people tend to have more physical health problems than younger people. But they also experience the truth of the following verse from the Bible.

`Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day` (2 Corinthians 4:16).

I love that everyone in that fellowship is so eager to pray for those who are ill and to offer practical help such as visiting, giving lifts, or getting their groceries. Some have no family to look after them, but God has certainly provided a spiritual family of brothers and sisters for them.