My mother in her 80s often talk of going "to see my father" signifying her desire to leave this earth. I have to ask her to continually call on Jesus in her time of need and to remind her that my dad is in heaven. To go to be with my father, she has to accept Jesus into her life.
As children we try to make our elderly parents as comfortable as possible. As my sister often say "we need to give mother a good quality of life in her golden years". That's why today we have put my mother in an expensive retirement home and also arranged a driver to take her 'kai kai' (go out sightseeing in Hock Kien).
2Cor 14:16-17 is entitled "Seeing the invisible" in the NKJV.
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory"
We are made up of two parts:
- the outward man who is perishing day by day (visible)
- the inward man (who through prayer and fasting) is being renewed day by day (invisible)
We can indeed see this beautiful truth in scripture intensify when we go into the August prayer and fasting month.
In the natural we cannot see it because our memory seems to be failing (sometimes I crack my head real hard to remember the names of my colleagues in the bank even though I see them at the lifts very often).
My knee cartilage seems to be giving way (however I realize that when I focus on the pain less and keep focusing on God more, the pain does not manifest itself as much as it did when I was focusing on it)!
I pray to God "I am not going to let my arthritis keep me from coming to morning watch! I am going to keep on climbing those stairs to light the prayer altar in the church"....surely God will see my faith and reward me.
Perhaps the most telling signs about the outward man perishing is the grey hairs on my head which I try to cover by coloring it.
Recently I discover something else about ageing...hearing loss! I found that I just could not hear the whispers of my colleagues when they want to tell me some juicy gossip about so and so. Perhaps this is meant for good. God does not want me to hear things that I should not be hearing for sure!
The other day at the Conference, the music was loud, the preaching was amplified by the mike...I could feel my eardrums hurting....some of us had to literally cover our ears to hear ourselves sing! No more earphones for me cos I believe this has affected my hearing!
Caleb (like Anna) kept his vision alive even till his old age.
In Joshua 14:10 - Caleb declared his age as 85 years old:
"And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old"
Despite his age, his inward man was being renewed day by day.
Joshua 14:11
"As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in."
His spiritual age was ageless. He was a man who was full of faith even at 85 years old:
Joshua 14:12
"Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said"
I am comforted. I am encouraged by the example of Anna and Caleb.
Though my outward man perishes, my inward man will be renewed daily through prayer and fasting.
Prayer and fasting is not limited to age. We can still serve the Lord in prayer and fasting even at 85!
FAITH HAS NO AGE. FAITH IS AGELESS.
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