Ten Reasons why you should not worry when you become old
Once I had an opportunity to spend time with a couple who were in their mid seventies. They were involved in church ministry for many years. They were happy that all of their children were settled in various places after their marriage. When I asked them about their future, they told me that they were afraid of death. They were not prepared for death. I explained to them what the Bible teaches on the life after death and how they can prepare themselves even in this world by accepting Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord. They prayed and committed their lives to Jesus Christ on that day. There are many people, like this old couple, who fear death and are not prepared for a life after death. Many people, including believers, fear death. When people become old, they tend to fear more. Some people are afraid that they will become sick and will become a burden to others in their last years. Others are afraid that their spouse or children will suffer after their death. Let us see some reasons why old people need not fear death or about future?
- When a believer attained the age of sixty, he began to worry about his future and his health. When he looked at old people having many ailments, he was afraid that he will become very sick and die. On that particular day, he read Isaiah chapter 46. The Lord spoke to him through Isaiah 46:3, 4. “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by Me from birth, who have been carried from the womb; even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.” He was surprised to read that the Lord who carried him so far will carry him, bear him and deliver him till the end. While reading further in that chapter, he found that the people carry other gods. But God who carried him from the womb, promised to continue to carry and deliver him to the end. What an outstanding promise for those who are afraid of future!
- God has promised to be with you when you walk through the valley of Death is a valley through which all men of this world must pass through. But believers have the privilege that the Lord will be with them and comfort them when they pass through this valley. What a wonderful experience it would be to pass through death with the Lord? “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are withme; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4).
- Remember that the Bible teaches that all believers will be with the Lord after their death. This is a rare privilege for us to be with God after death. Paul writes, “We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thes. 4:13, 14, 17).
- “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb. 2: 14-15). “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, a death, is your victory? Where, a death, is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54-55). “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).
- “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8). “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him,” but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit (1 Cor. 2:9- 10).
- You have a rare privilege to be in a place where there will be no sorrow or fear. “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7: 17). “He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken” (Is. 25:8).
- Believers go to a place of rest when they die in this restless world. What a rare privilege is death for believers? “The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death” (Is. 57: 1-2).
- God will not permit you to pass through problems which you will not be able to handle. God will never give you a suffering that you will not be able to withstand. For the Bible promises, “No temptation (problems) has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Cor. 10: 13).
- “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed” (Rom. 8: 18-19). “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweigh them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. Forwhat is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4: 17-18).
- Don’t fear that you will be a burden to others or fear that your loved ones”And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). “But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless” (Ps. 10: 14). “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling” (Ps. 68:5). “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Remember that fear says what is opposite to what Jesus says. Fear says that God will not be with you when you die. Fear says that you will suffer and become a burden to others before death. Fear says that your loved ones in this world will miss you when you die. Fear says that you will not go to heaven after your death. But faith says that you will be with Jesus in heaven happily forever and ever.
(Dr. C. Barnabas, taken from True Discipleship, May-June 2008)