Finding the Golden Years Truly Golden

You can listen to this post here on Refresh Her podcast.

I like to think I’m organized, but it seems like more and more, I’m looking for something.  Recently it was a recipe.  “I KNOW it’s in this box.  I’ve always filed it under ‘Desserts,’ but I don’t see it.  I remember that it’s on a recipe card with my mom’s name at the top.  The card looks like watermelon colors.”  I could see it mentally. My eyes were peeled for that color in that box of hundreds of recipe cards of every color. If I could find that recipe I could make some delicious cookies! I did eventually lay my hands on it and found that I was skimming right over top of it because I was looking for the wrong thing.  The card looked completely different than what I pictured.

Growing up, we all heard about “The Golden Years.”  The picture that was painted in my mind was of lawn chairs,, lemonade and leisure! Those senior citizens in my mind’s eye were doing NOTHING except resting or traveling in their RV.  Seemed pretty nice in my youthful mind.  

But as I’ve aged and listened to senior citizens, I’ve heard quite the opposite of that imagined scenario.  I hear Senior Citizens crying, “And these are the Golden years?!  There’s nothing Golden about these years!”  But I’ve come to understand from God’s Word that it isn’t that the Golden years are so horrible, it’s like my search for that cookie recipe, perhaps  the eyes of seniors are missing it because we’re looking for the wrong thing.  

Growing older does have its difficulties and heartaches, but like my early perception, so many seniors are looking for what only heaven will give us – rest from trouble, pain and sorrow.  But that doesn’t mean there are no golden years for seniors, it’s just that we need to know what to be looking for.

How can we find these years as The Golden years as truly golden?

Psalm 92 Seniors have…

1. Multiplied praises! Verses 1,2 –  It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High:

2 To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,

Eagerly and promptly we should magnify the Lord.
We’ve seen LOTS of mornings and nights so we have seen more of God’s loving kindnesses and faithfulness than younger people.
Psalm 148:12 Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:

13 Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.

What is more natural for us? To grumble, be critical and grouchy, but it’s Supernatural to praise!  Psalm 40:3

Recount God’s goodness to you every day!  Keep it current!  Don’t only think back to your childhood or youth.  Praise Him for what He taught you in His Word today, for His faithfulness to you yesterday.  Thank Him for the ways you see His lovingkindness to you today.

“We whine as if our lives were martyrdom and every breath a woe.  But it is not so.  Such conduct slanders a good God!: ~Spurgeon
Those are Golden Praises!

2. Memories Personified- V. 4 For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.
   
   Everyone has a story.  It’s one of the BIG things that happened in their life. But as a believer, that story should connect our memory to God. 
   
   I could tell you about the tornado in 1973 that took the whole roof off our home…
   It could be eye-popping to tell my grandsons about that storm, but I would be remiss if I didn’t also tell them how good God was!  He protected our band while on those buses.  How God kept my mother safe.  How He kept our clothes from being destroyed and how He had led me to Matthew 6 that very morning to remind truths from Matthew 6 – But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also
   What’s your story? If you’ve been born again, that is one story that every person who knows you should hear over and over again!   Are you using your stories to point those that are listening to your loving Heavenly Father? 
   
   Those are Golden memories!

3. Measured grace (Enough for each day) – V. 10  But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
   “oil” often signifies the Spirit of God, his gifts and graces; and “fresh” oil may intend new supplies of his grace out of the fulness of it, which is in Christ; and also the renewed joys and comforts of the Holy Spirit, 

Another thought about the oil –
Oil pure and sweet; not old and rancid. That is, he would be made happy, cheerful, bright, and prosperous. Anointing with oil in the East was the symbol of all this, or was equivalent to what we mean by putting on festive apparel – holiday apparel.

We can smile at the future!  We can celebrate because we have His grace, His joy, and our future is bright!

This is Golden Grace!

4. Multiplied fruit – Vs 12-14
   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;

This means we should be planted – planted in the house of the Lord. We must abide in Chrtist, whose roots are spiritual.  What a tragedy to get older and abandon what you were taught from God’s Word. 

We should also be productive.  Fruitful trees to the glory of God. Palm trees have dep roots and can survive when other trees are dying.  Palm trees keep on producing fruit and it doesn’t diminish – it gets better and sweeter!
Think about some of the old saints in Scripture and how God used them when they were near the end of their life. 
Abraham – Became a father to Isaac and showed his love for God by his obedience
Moses – 80 years old when he began to be used with success
Elijah – Began to mentor Elisha after his greatest ministry days
Jacob – lived to see God answer some of the greatest needs of his life
Paul – Wrote the beloved epistles that encourage us still today
Naomi became the great grandmother to David in her old age. 

Ruth 4:13 And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel.

15 And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.

16 And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it.

The greatest thing God wants to do through you may still be in your future. 

Who is around you that you could influence? Little children or teens at church, in your neighborhood, younger women, mothers who need counsel and encouragement?  You don’t need a PHD – you just need time in God’s Word and you probably have more time for that now.

With whom could you call and have prayer?
Who needs a note of encouragement?  Your pastor is one!
Who needs the news of the Gospel?  Your landlord?  Landscape guy?  Delivery man? Nurse or doctor?

It’s tempting to live out the fruit of our Old nature rather than the fruit of our old age.
We can still be bearing much fruit.  Why?

It’s all for His glory! Ps 92:15 To shew that the Lord is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

This is a Golden Reason to Live (and a Golden reason to die!)

These are the things for which we need to be looking as we age!  The Golden years are right in front of you.  Don’t miss it.