Aging With Grace: Week Five

Join us for our Summer 2022
​Book Club-Style Bible Study

We are using the book Aging With Grace
​by Sharon W. Betters and Susan Hunt.

“Where we look determines what we worship, and what we worship determines what we become.” —Aging With Grace

How would you like to learn how to age with grace with us this summer, friend? I have done this study, and let me tell you, it is not just for older women! We are all aging, even if you're 18 years old, you're aging, and we all want to do it with grace, right? Join me here or eight weeks this summer on Tuesday mornings at 9:00 est beginning June 7 through July 26.

If you can't join us on Tuesday mornings at 9:00 est, join us when you can.
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Whatever season of life you’re in, God has equipped you to flourish—to live in the transforming power and beauty of His grace. As we age, we can easily lose sight of this message as cultural ideals glorifying youth take center stage.

In the book, Aging With Grace, Sharon W. Betters and Susan Hunt offer present-day and biblical examples of women who rediscovered Gospel-rooted joy in their lives. Equipped with a biblical view of aging, Aging with Grace will help you encounter afresh the Gospel that “is big enough, good enough, and powerful enough to make every season of life significant and glorious.”

Aging with Grace: Flourishing and Fruitful

Although there are no words adequate to describe the wonders of God’s creation, pictures of its beauty and majesty come to mind when we hear the words “flourishing” and “fruitful.” God has made most all living things with the capability to physically flourish and bear fruit.

When I think of creation bringing glory to God, I think of the plants and animals doing what they were created to do. This is a beautiful picture of how we also flourish and bear fruit. By doing what He has created us to do.

“The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” (Psalm 92:12-15)

Though plants and animals and even people physically flourish, not just anyone can spiritually flourish. According to Psalm 92:12, only the righteous flourish.

We can do a whole lot of good things and not be righteous in God’s sight. Isaiah 64:6 says, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;” 

We can only be transferred to the category of “righteous” by faith in Christ Jesus. By faith in His Word. Abraham believed God, and it was counted as righteousness. (Romans 4:3). One day we will stand before God with no righteousness of our own. It will be all Christ’s.

As we age with grace, we desire to see the evidences of Christ’s righteousness becoming more and more obvious as we grow older. ​

Our desire is for our countenance to daily take on more of the beauty of Christ’s righteousness. This transformation into a godly graceful older woman is His doing. It is His grace poured out on me and enabling me. I can’t make it happen. But He can.

It is the great reversal. Taking a weak, aging, seemingly useless body of a woman, and invigorating her on the inside to flourish and bear fruit. Aging and declining physically and mentally may be discouraging for us, but it is no challenge for Him.   ​

“…we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away (perishing), our inner self is being renewed day by day.” (II Corinthians 4:16)

“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Psalm 40:29-31)

It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, this promise is for all ages who wait on the Lord. Your age will not restrict you from running and being strong spiritually. Your age will not be a factor in your weariness and in your fainting. It is the righteous that will flourish, and this, my friends, is a foundational principle for aging with grace.

Susan Hunt says, ​

“Understanding the doctrine of justification so that it becomes our doxology and our confidence is an essential element in aging with grace. It is important to know the relationship between justification (being made righteous) and sanctification (being made holy).”

I saw this first hand as I talked to a lady recently who is so full of guilt and shame that she can hardly function. This dear lady is working through a troubled marriage and is trusting God. She has confessed sin and submitted herself to the authority of God’s Word. She is doing it right. All I have seen from her in action is obedience, but she cannot get past her past. She saw the list in Revelation 21:8 that describes those who would be cast into the Lake of Fire one day, and she sees her past in one of those descriptions.

But God. I reminded her of 1 Cor. 6:11—“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

To age with grace, we have to get this right. We have been justified…made righteous…once and for all. God does not want us to live in shame and guilt over our past. And if we still struggle with particular sins, He promises us forgiveness and cleansing. Confess regularly and do not hold something against yourself that God does not hold against you. The righteousness of Christ is beautiful and we need to celebrate it! Rejoice in it! Be grateful for it!

The righteous flourish and are fruitful. It’s a fact.

What does the average Christian think this means? Activity. Productivity. DOING more.

Let’s bring our thoughts concerning “flourishing” and “fruitful” into line with what the Bible says. It does not mean we DO more. It means we BECOME more like Christ as we die to self.

“And Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.’” (John 12:23-24)

We discover true life - flourishing and fruitfulness - only when we die to self and follow Christ in obedience. That little plant under the ground germinating, sprouting, growing, blossoming, and bearing fruit…that plant is not making it happen. There is an external force at work. The water, the sun, and the soil. This is true of the Christian. God’s Spirit is the One working behind the scenes. And how beautiful it is! The fruit of the Spirit!

It is ironic really, that as we flourish, we are progressively dying. Dying to self. But that death to self is resulting in abundant life.

“The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” (Psalm 92:12)

“Even when our bodies become bent with age, the spirit of the Christian who dies to self and follows Christ grows upright. Like the date palm, she becomes sweeter in old age. And like the full-grown cedar of Lebanon, her presence provides a canopy of Gospel refreshment for others.” —Susan Hunt

Notice in Psalm 92:13 where we flourish. In the house of the Lord.

“The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Deuteronomy 33:27)

“Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.” (Psalm 90:1-2)

Susan Hunt said, The Lord’s redeemed ones are never homeless. HE is our home.

God’s Word tells us again and again that we are in Christ.

“Therefore, if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

Although we are in Christ, we are at the moment also in the world, physically. And therefore, God wants us to be in a local church, living in a community of believers who are also in Christ. This is where God has planted us. This is where we show forth to the next generation. We declare that the Lord is upright. He has always done the right thing and always will. He is our Rock. He is our stronghold and our protector in the storms. There is no unrighteousness in Him. He is worthy of our praise and worthy of our worship.

This is flourishing. This is fruitfulness. And this is aging gracefully.

​Age gracefully!

How are you flourishing, and how are you aging with grace today, friend?

Read Aging With Grace: Week Six

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