Sun 9:30a Class; 10:30a Worship; 11:35a Communion
Bible Bites
A Consistent Life
A CONSISTENT LIFE
“Even to your old age, I will be the same, and even to your graying years, I will bear you!” (Isaiah 46:4)
A lot changes as we grow old. Our bodies change, and we can’t trust them to do what they used to. Our backs hurt, our teeth grow brittle, and our knees need replacing. Our relationships change – our children grow up and leave, people move away (and move in!), and eventually, we start attending the funerals of our peers and friends. Our own view of the world changes as our personalities soften around the edges or harden with the test of time; we look at life differently, and the culture we grew up in is not the one we see around us today.
Growing old isn’t easy because it seems like nothing ever stays the same. What a comfort to know that God is the same in our old age and graying years. Like the hub of a wheel, our Father stays put while everything else spins around. The older we get, the more we value the One who never changes and always holds us close.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.” (Hebrews 13:8-9)
God is consistent, but as life throws curveballs at us, we have to remember to be consistent, too. Faith in Jesus requires us to be consistent – to do the same thing in the same way over time. Those who age gracefully in the Lord have learned the value of consistency. Consistent worship attendance, consistent prayer, consistent Bible study, consistent participation in acts of service. These behaviors lead to lifetime habits and reputation. Consistency means not being carried away by the need for variety – some things should be the same all the time.
“I have been young, and now I am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.” (Psalm 37:25)
You may have noticed that older folks are oftentimes less startled by the emergencies of life. There is a reason for this. They’ve seen the emergencies before and learned that if you just put one foot in front of the other, God will take care of it. Worry and panic don’t help – trusting the Lord does. Age brings many problems with it, but one advantage is that it brings perspective. It did for David, and that’s why he wrote Psalm 37.
To summarize, when we are consistent in our faith, we learn that God is consistent as we follow Jesus, and we gain consistent peace because we are growing consistently closer to Him as the years go by.
