Aging With Grace: Week One

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.
​
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: ​Wonder and Worship

Maybe you’re like me. At first glance, it sounds like “Aging with Grace” is a subject for the ag-ed, but before you click off, I need to remind you that whether we are 18 or 98, all of us are aging and therefore need to be aging gracefully.

​For years this was not me. Nearing my senior year of college, I was teetering on the edge of childhood and adulthood and resisting the latter. It seems crazy now, but I shed many tears, because I did not want to become an adult. This was a lack of trust in God’s design for me.

Many reach a certain age and think life is over. It has been reported that 80 percent of those over 70 believe they are living their most non-productive years. They feel useless. But we don’t want those last years of life to be lived in survival mode. Instead, we want to thrive, becoming more beautiful on the inside and more useful the older we get. We must prepare for these years right now. Live our lives with the end in mind.

In this anti-aging culture, we as children of the Heavenly Kingdom, want to stand out as different. Instead of resisting the natural process of aging, we must embrace each season of life – early adulthood all the way to our senior years, while at the same time learning to rejoice and love God with all of our hearts, souls, and minds.   

Our reference point for life will never be our age, but it will always be God, and our authority, the Word of God.

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)

This process of aging with grace, the Bible calls “growing in grace.”

2 Peter 3:18 states, ​

“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever.”

Psalm 92 gives insight into aging gracefully. It is a song sung by God’s people on the Sabbath after they had gone into exile. God had brought them through many trials, and their faith had been stretched, giving them a more mature perspective on life. They end this song with rejoicing and confidence that the righteous will flourish in old age (verses 12-15). ​

It’s almost unthinkable. Fruitful? Fresh and green? This kind of thinking would transform the people’s thoughts about the elderly. It transformed the way the elderly saw themselves. “Fresh and green” because their hearts had been given over to the Lord in worship. They seemed to glow with God’s glory.

This is such a beautiful thing to see, but we’ve also seen the opposite—elderly Christians who are fearful, withdrawn, and bitter. There is no special formula, that if you do A, B, and C, you will glow with God’s glory in old age, but Psalm 98 does contain habits that will result in continued fruitfulness as the years pass.

"It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
    to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;

to declare Your steadfast love in the morning,
    and Your faithfulness by night,

to the music of the lute and the harp,
    to the melody of the lyre.

For You, O Lord, have made me glad by Your work;
    at the works of Your hands I sing for joy."

​Psalm 92:1-4

1. If we want to flourish, it’s going to begin with our knowledge of who God is. This is found in His Word, and it is contained in His names. 
   
   Notice the two names for God in Psalm 92:1. “LORD”: the Hebrew name, Yahweh; God’s covenant name, and “Most High”: Sovereign; Superior in power, strength, and authority.
   
   God made a covenant with His people. He repeats it over and over in scripture. “I will be your God. You will be My people. I will live among you.” We could say it is also the believer’s story-line. It’s the promise we should never forget.
   
   Get to know all of God’s promises. Get to know His character through His names and His Word, and get to know your identity in Christ. This will ground you in the troublesome times of life. It will help you age gracefully.  
   
   
2. If we want to flourish, we must be believers who are characterized by gratitude.
   
   You may remember the phrase that is repeated throughout the first chapter of Genesis concerning God's creation: “God saw that it was good.”
   
   Here in Psalm 92, we see something else that God describes as good. “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to Your name.”
   
   Whatever God allows in our lives is good because it is for our good (Romans 8:28 and 29). When we believe this and respond to trials with thanksgiving and praise, this trust will soften our hearts and sweeten our lives.
   
   
3. If we want to flourish, we must abide in Christ.
   
   Verse 2 of Psalm 92 tells us something else that is good. It is good to declare His steadfast love in the morning and His faithfulness at night.
   
   What do your mornings and evenings look like? Are you abiding in Him? Can you say, He is my life. There is no time where I take a break from God. He is the vine, and as a branch, I must constantly remain attached to receive nutrients in order to produce fruit. (John 15). Abiding results in flourishing.
   
   
4. If we want to flourish, we must delight in our God.
   
   Verse 4 of Psalm 92 says, “For You, Oh Lord, have made me glad by Your work. At the works of Your hands I sing for joy.”
   
   Doesn’t this remind you of Psalm 100 verse 2? “Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing!”
   
   ​When we serve God and see His hand at work through us, taking no credit but giving Him the glory, it makes us glad. It thrills our souls. We are only vessels being used to accomplish the purposes of our great God. At the works of His hands we sing for joy!

Begin now. Know your God through the Scriptures. Live with a spirit of gratitude for all things He allows in your life. Abide in Him, staying connected to Him at all times. Delight and be glad in the works of the Lord. And while you are at it, sing for joy as you live out His will for your life on this earth.

Without a doubt, each year will grow sweeter, and the beauty of the Lord God will be upon you as you age.

Age gracefully!

I love this quote: "We are only vessels being used to accomplish the purposes of our great God." It fully embodies who I want to be—a vessel used to accomplish His purpose. How are you aging with grace today, friend?

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