When we start to get a little older in this life we find that it is more difficult to maintain our health than when we were younger. We get all kinds of aches and pains and seem susceptible to illness more, always seeming to have some cold or allergy problem or stomach bug or something. The old body just doesn’t seem to work as well anymore and we feel it. The opposite can seem true in our spiritual life.

We may think that it is easier to walk the way of righteousness because we have been doing it so long it is just second nature. We must be careful in this thinking, however, that we do not become complacent and shift into a sort of cruise control mode, as if we do not have to do the things anymore that we used to in our walk with God.

1 Corinthians 10:12 tells us: “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” This is a clear warning from the Apostle Paul that we must not become complacent or over confident in our walk with God, thinking we have “arrived” and can thus just carry on without continuing to grow spiritually in the Lord.

Psalm 1 says that blessed or Happy is he whose “delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.” We must continue to meditate on the scriptures day and night, no matter our age, and delight in them so that we may grow thereby. If we think we know all there is to know we are mistaken and must continue to grow in a positive direction or we will instead grow in a negative direction that we do not desire.

As the body breaks down and grows weaker we should grow ever stronger in our walk with God and ever closer to Him, until He takes us home to be with Him in the end. We must be like Enoch, who walked with God and then was no more for God took Him (Genesis 5:23,24).

But Enoch walked with God for 365 years before God took him. We must not grow weary in our shorter lifespan, but keep on keeping on, studying and applying God’s will as if we will live forever (which we hope to do).

If we are still around in this life despite getting older it is because God wants us here continuing to serve Him as we always have, as well as we are still able. While the body is getting older and winding down we must not stop or wind down our service to the Lord, but as an older, wiser Christian we can be of great help to the younger Christians who may be struggling in their faith.

Even as we help the younger, however, we must not think we know all there is to know, but must continue to grow ourselves. Maybe we are not quite ready for heaven ourselves, but God would have us continue to grow in the faith, until we take our last breath and He calls us home. Even as we teach, or attempt to teach others, we must continue to learn ourselves.

The command “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,” (1 Peter 2:2)  does not only apply to the young or new Christian, it applies to us all. We must continue to feed on the pure milk of the word or  thinking we stand and have no further need of it, we will surely fall.

No matter how godly and righteous we think we have become (and we should not really even think that we are such) there is still room for growth and if we do not grow we will die. So, even as our physical body dies, let us continue with vim and vigor to serve the most high God and to grow, even if it takes 365 years for God to finally take us home.

May God bless and keep you until next time.