Seniors: We Are Never too Old for God to Use in Powerful Ways

It’s not surprising that all of us seniors recognize our advancing age. We need
only to climb a flight of stairs, or to move an ottoman, or (gads) to look into a
mirror to realize that we’re no longer that twenty-year-old youth able to leap tall
buildings in a single bound.

That’s normal, though, and perfectly okay. But we’re mistaken to wrongly accept
the notion that our best years are behind us. Lest we forget, Ronald Reagan
became President of the United States at the age of seventy-two and served
brilliantly in that office for two full terms.

And we need only to look at the Apostle John to realize that we are never too old
to be of service to God; and perhaps have yet to contribute our most awesome
accomplishment as a Christian for His purposes.

So let’s consider the Apostle John’s ministry in his later years as proof that we senior
Christians, despite our age and adverse circumstances, are never forgotten or
overlooked by God for future service due to our age.

The Apostle John, as you know, was the young fisherman that faithfully followed
Christ as a disciple throughout His three-year public ministry and then later wrote
the Fourth Gospel and three Epistles in the New Testament that bear his name. In
other words, John was extremely fruitful throughout his lifetime.

So when Rome banished him to the remote island of Patmos for his testimony of
Christ, the ninety-year John could have easily considered his work and ministry
finished. But that wasn’t God’s intention for the aged Apostle because he was
chosen to record and distribute the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Okay, now think about that a moment. This was not teenager John who first
became a Christian; this was old man John who was long past what might be
considered a practical age for such an arduous task as to record the most
complete future installment of God ever beheld by a man.

In fact, we might regard John as an unlikely selection for the same reason we tend
to disqualify ourselves. Given our age group, where strength of body and mind
has been declining for decades, it just seems improbable that our most rewarding
years to serve God are yet to come.

Nonetheless, if we refute the cunning devices of the devil and the vain
philosophies of our culture, and instead make ourselves wholeheartedly available
to the Lord to accomplish His own wise and holy ends, we are correct to
anticipate future rewarding years of service.

An elderly Christian woman once said to me, “My body has aged, but the Spirit
inside me has not aged.” She surely got it. That the Holy Spirit is not subject to
whatever the ravages of time have done to our flesh so He will continue to
empower us to exalt the glory of Jesus Christ as long as we have breathe.

How God will manifest this in us is known only to Him. But rest assured by the
witness of others that a failing body has nothing to do with Spiritual matters; and
that each of us seniors, regardless of our age, are still amply qualified as a servant
of God who still has more to offer Christ and others.

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me;
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave Himself for me” (Ephesians 2:20).

Dear senior, if you’ve been seating in the stands wrongly convinced that you’re too
old to serve God, confess it immediately. Offer yourself back to our Heavenly
Father and allow Him to complete all that He’s ordained for you. Jesus will be
blessed, others will be blessed, and you will be blessed by your faithfulness.

James Kobzeff is an Evangelical "born again" Christian who frequently writes articles to inspire, encourage, and instruct Christians.