Page 9 - 2017 JFBNews - August

Older believers can be of monumental help in instructing us in Friends We Need
fleeing these temptations, as well as pursuing the godly qualities.
Both youth and old age have their advantages and disadvantages
to handle aging well now from those who have
Learning how
already experienced it will save you much strife in life. Paul even (Proverbs 20:29). Whatever the new generations bring is under
God’s sovereign hand; whatever passes away with the old has been
goes so far as to say that older believers should be considered with
taken away by that same hand.
the affection and respect of parents (1 Timothy 5:1).
Whether eight years old or eighty, we are not all-knowing.
Exhortation to Older Believers
However, we are all called alongside one another to worship the
I understand that learning and listening to someone much younger one who is, humbly seeking one another’s growth, sanctification,
than you is hard and humbling. What could I know that those with and joy. Let us not tear each other apart in arrogance over age-
twenty, thirty, forty, or even fifty years more life experience than related differences. God has set us all in our times in history
me don’t know? It’s not the number of our years, however, but the according to his good pleasure and purpose.
work of the Holy Spirit that brings wisdom. “It is not the old who
are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right. . . . But it is Young and old, we are all members of one body. The friends we
the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him need are not exactly like us — the friends we need are at different
understand” (Job 32:9, 8). Whatever true wisdom we have comes levels of maturity, experience, and wisdom than ourselves. And this
is exactly what Christ gives us in his church.
from the Holy Spirit, not ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:5).
In general, we have a hatred of aging in our world (historically and
currently), but the answer is not nitpicking and looking for things to
criticize about those running after you (1 Timothy 4:12). The
answer is to look toward God who is still the same in your old age
and, even in your time of gray hair, will bear you (Isaiah 46:4). As
your wrinkles have come, his love has not faded for you. In the
weakness of your flesh, he stands ready to uphold you.

It is a grace of God that the young people in your life have been
placed there. After all, “gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a
righteous life” (Proverbs 16:31). You have a great opportunity to
pass on the deposit of faith entrusted to you to the next generation Calley Sivils
(2 Timothy 4:5–6). This is a great task that cannot be accomplished Calley Sivils is a college graduate (B.S. Linguistics) grow-
without blood-purchased humility. Don’t pass on the chance to set ing in love and service to others in a small Missouri
the next generation of the church on your shoulders because you town. She writes on her blog, Waashedwanderer.
think they don’t hold the same values that you do — chances are
they do, and they need your wisdom to steward them wisely.

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