So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith.
—COLOSSIANS 2:6–7
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.
—HENRY FORD
Our culture is not defined by the old or the new—but by the latest. The high-tech world moves at accelerated speeds. Society sharpens itself on the cutting edge that, at times, can be deceitful. A cable news network recently carried a press conference on the announcement of the new iPad. Before the presentation was finished, creators of the product told plans of its coming replacement. Keeping up with the latest and greatest is difficult.
This increasing pace of innovation is challenging, especially for those of us who are getting along in years. My generation saw life go from the Model T to the iEverything—the iPhone, iPod, iPad, iCard, iStore, iSource, and so on. We were taught to take care of what we possessed, then pass it down to the young, hoping that they would cherish what had meaning. Youth, however, are accustomed to discarding one possession for another that might look the same but possess something unseen: more memory. In a world already drowning in the information flood, tech companies are constantly increasing memory capacity, and users are thrilled at forgetting the old to make room for the new. Meanwhile the older generation is hanging on for dear life to the memories we have accumulated during our lifetimes, fearful we might forget the anchors that stabilized, the lighthouse that directed, and the Word of God that calmed the treacherous waters.
A popular technology accessory company posted on its website, “We are surrounded by so much technology that we begin to forget our roots.”1 That’s quite an admission. It’s true. People can become so encumbered with being “connected” to information that they “disconnect” from others. Technology can weaken relationships and push the reality of life out of the way. Generally, the older someone is, the more intensely this disconnect is felt, especially from the young. I encourage those who are grandparents to never give up on seeking creative ways to engage your grandchildren. Remember, the oldest generation may struggle with short-term memory loss, but its attention span is probably still greater than that of younger generations. Let’s remember to teach them by example that roots are important. It is our responsibility to build them up: “Encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV).
Generations that are younger in years cope with boredom more than my generation did. Something new to us remained new and valued for a long time. But eventually, newness wears off. Within days after a baby is born, the cherished whimper to new parents becomes the nagging whine. A toddler’s first steps, once applauded for getting to where they want to go, are soon scolded when they lead to someplace unsafe. King Solomon in his wisdom predicted this quick dissatisfaction with the latest and greatest when he wrote,
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor the ear filled with hearing. . . .
There is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which it may be said,
“See, this is new”?
It has already been in ancient times before us. (Ecclesiastes 1:8–10 NKJV)
While we all benefit in some ways from modern technology, I do wonder what state our world would be in if we suddenly lost the electrical power necessary to keep our communications functioning. Would the younger generations know how to grow crops to feed a family? Would they know how to drop anchor and wait for the catch? Would they know how to survive by the sweat of the brow? New is good. Old is necessary.
The Bible has a lot to say about the old and the new. “I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning” (1 John 2:7 NKJV). In this text John is reminding his readers that the proof of knowing God is following the commandments that He gave long ago, that He gave “from the beginning.” The love of God is then perfected in the one who obeys (1 John 2:5 NKJV). Anything “from the beginning” is old, including God’s love, present before the beginning of time. When man did not fathom the inexpressible love of God the Creator, He sent love down to earth in the form of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our redemption is rooted in Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself, keeping us firmly planted.
GROWING FROM SEED TO SEEDLING
Growing anything takes time. It takes planning. It takes commitment. There is something gratifying in tilling soil, planting seed, watering roots, and watching the sun raise a plant from the soil. It is satisfying to break ground, erect an infrastructure, and nail down a roof. A stopwatch cannot count down the months it takes to see the results. Patience has become a lost virtue. One hundred years ago the hourglass marked time. Today, if the iconic hourglass remains on the computer screen longer than a few seconds, it causes undue stress for the student or executive who has no time for contemplation.
I have always admired those who work with their hands. When a friend of mine retired years ago, he and his wife began researching where they might retire. A prerequisite was finding a place where he could have a woodworking shop. Still today he makes beautiful bowls and candlesticks from old wood he finds while hiking in nearby forests.
“What is your favorite wood to work with?” I asked him one day.
“I suppose it would be from the trees that grow along the ridgetops of the Appalachian Mountains,” he answered.
“Why?”
“Because of the harsh climate, those trees grow very slowly,” he replied. “As a result the wood is tough and close-grained, which makes it hard to carve; but anything made from it will be durable and very beautiful.”
That surprised me because I had often hiked past similar trees that were stunted and twisted into grotesque shapes by the fierce, cold winds that frequently buffet the peaks of Mount Mitchell, the highest point in the United States east of the Mississippi River, a dozen or so miles from my home. But when he showed me a box he had carved from this type of wood, I understood that what was once ugly and battered could be made into something exquisite by a masterful hand. I asked him to show me a piece of the rough wood.
“I haven’t any right now. You see, I won’t cut such trees down. I wait until they fall, and then I retrieve them and turn the wood into something beautiful.”
Like those trees along our windswept mountain ridges, we often find ourselves buffeted by storms—the storms of life. Like those trees, we need deep roots that will supply us with the spiritual nutrients needed to grow strong in our faith and to keep us anchored when we are tossed about by life’s trials.
Our country and our world have experienced one catastrophic storm after another the past few years. I revised and updated my book Storm Warning2 in 2010 to heighten awareness of what the Bible has to say about storms in our world, storms in our lives, and the storms to come. As we get older, we encounter storms that we never thought we’d face. But with God’s help and by His grace, we can be strong when the winds begin to blow.
It is no accident that the Bible compares us to trees, urging us to be sure our spiritual roots are deep and strong. The psalmist wrote that the godly person “is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season” (Psalm 1:3). But a tree wasn’t always a tree. It began as a small seed, which in time sprouted and became a seedling. If conditions were right, that fragile seedling grew into a sapling and finally into a mature tree.
The same is true of spiritual life. It begins with a seed—the seed of God’s Word planted in the soil of our souls that eventually sprouts and becomes a new seedling. But—like a tree—that spiritual seedling isn’t meant to remain a seedling forever! It is meant to grow and become strong and mature, bearing fruit that is pleasing to God. The Bible illustrates this truth in another way. When we come to Christ, the Bible says, we are like newborn babies—bursting with new life, but helpless and weak and vulnerable to every kind of danger. But a baby isn’t meant to remain that way forever. Infants are meant to grow and eventually become adults—no longer helpless and weak and vulnerable, but able to take care of themselves and have full and productive lives.
The same is true for us spiritually. When we come to Christ, we are born again—that is, God our Heavenly Father works in our hearts by His Holy Spirit to give us new life as His children (John 3:1–17). But we aren’t meant to remain spiritual infants, weak and vulnerable to every temptation or doubt or falsehood or fear. God’s will is for us to grow strong in our faith and become spiritually mature, grounded in the truth of His Word and firmly committed to doing His will. The Bible says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:2).
Giving your life to Christ is an essential first step—but it is only the first step. God’s will is for you to become spiritually mature, growing stronger in your relationship to Christ and your service for Him. But this takes both time and effort. Conversion is the work of an instant; spiritual maturity is the work of a lifetime. It is a journey with many steps, and it should be everyone’s main goal in life. Is it yours?
BECOMING MORE LIKE HIM
What is spiritual maturity? To put it another way, what does God want to do in our lives? What does He want to do in your life?
The Bible’s answer can be put in one sentence: God’s will is for us to become more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants to change us from within, taking away everything that dishonors Him and replacing it with Christ’s love and purity. From all eternity God’s plan was that we would be “conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). This is spiritual maturity: to become more and more like Christ in our “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).
Will we ever reach this goal? No, not completely in this life—but someday we will enter God’s presence forever, and then we will be totally free from sin’s grip. Then “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
So what about the present? Does this mean it is hopeless to strive for spiritual maturity? No! God wants to begin changing us from within and making us more like Christ right now. In Heaven that process will be complete; sin’s power over us will be destroyed, and we will inherit that Heavenly home Christ has prepared for us. Do you want to know what God’s will is for you? It is simply this: to become more like Christ. Do others see Christ in you?
DEVELOPING A ROOT SYSTEM
How can we develop a faith that will be strong enough to see us through the whole of our lives, including the uncertainties and challenges of old age?
The key is this: God wants us to be spiritually strong and has provided us with every resource we need. In ourselves we are weak, so if we try to meet life’s struggles and temptations on our own, we fail. We need God’s strength to face life’s challenges—and He wants to give it to us. He will strengthen us in faith as we make use of the resources He has given us; He will develop a root system within us that grabs hold of surety. As Peter reminded us, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3).
Tragically, many Christians never discover this. They have committed their lives to Christ . . . they may be active in their churches . . . they pray and read their Bibles on occasion—but they remain spiritually immature and weak in the face of life’s temptations and setbacks. The Bible warns us about the danger of remaining spiritual infants “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14).
We may be old in years, but if our faith is immature, we will enter those latter years fearful and unprepared. But it doesn’t need to be this way. Just as a baby needs food and exercise in order to grow, so we need the spiritual food and exercise God has provided for us. Without them our faith is weak, but with them spiritual strength increases, and we are better prepared for whatever life has in store for us.
How do we grow strong in our faith? What spiritual resources has God given us to make this happen? In the next few pages I would like to examine five of these gifts.
The Gift of God’s Word
Some years ago Ruth was visiting one of our daughters, and she decided to build a rudimentary zip line for the grandchildren. Always adventurous, she secured a sturdy wire at an angle between two trees. To test it she climbed the tree at the taller end, grabbed the handle (made from a piece of pipe), and started down the inclined wire.
But the wire broke, hurtling her to the ground some fifteen feet below. She broke several bones, crushed a vertebra, and suffered a severe brain concussion that left her in a coma for a week. As she slowly recovered, she realized that large blocks of her memory were missing—including all the Bible verses she had memorized since childhood. “That was the worst part,” she said later. “The Bible meant so much to me and had guided me all my life, and now I couldn’t even remember a single verse. It was devastating.” I understood her heartache; I would have felt the same way in her place. Thankfully, over time her memory largely returned, including—little by little—the Bible verses she had learned over the years.
Why was the Bible so important to her? And why should it be important to us? The reason is simple: the Bible is God’s Word, given by God to teach us His truth and guide us through life. The Bible says,
I am the LORD your God,
who teaches you what is best for you,
who directs you in the way you should go. (Isaiah 48:17)
The Bible is not an option; it is a necessity if we are going to be rooted in Him.
How does the Bible help us develop spiritually? First, it points us to the truth—about God, about ourselves, about the world around us, about the future, and most of all about Jesus Christ and His love for us. Only Jesus—the incarnate Son of God—could say, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. . . . Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:6, 9). The Christian faith isn’t just a matter of personal opinion or unfounded optimism. It is rooted in the unchanging truth of God, revealed to us in the pages of His written Word. The Bible is the constant rain that waters our root system of faith. It is the inspiration from which we drink daily.
The Bible then nourishes our growing roots with principles to live by. Every day we face decisions—some insignificant but others of great importance (although we may not realize it at the time). How can we be sure we make the right decisions? By applying biblical principles. The psalmist reminds us, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word” (Psalm 119:9). The world has its own values and goals: self-gratification, success, pleasure, security, pride, and so forth. But these are false, and they will never give us the lasting security and peace we seek.
In His guidebook God gives us a different set of values and goals—ones that put Christ at the center of our lives instead of self. The Bible tells us to flee from sin and self-indulgence, and seek instead to base our lives on “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:11). The Bible also gives us practical wisdom for daily living. It is our instructor, showing us how to live. For many years I made it a practice to read a chapter a day from the book of Proverbs, thus covering the entire book every month. Proverbs is filled with practical wisdom on a wide variety of topics: relationships, possessions, family, speech, work, habits, and so much more. “The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them” (Hosea 14:9). The Bible is our authority in everything.
From one end to the other, God’s Word is filled with promises—promises concerning His unchanging love, His presence, His help, His peace in times of turmoil. Most of all, the Bible promises us that someday we will go to be with God in Heaven forever because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. Learn God’s promises, trust them, and live by them every day, for God “has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:4).
Are you seeking to base your life on the principles and values God has given us in the Bible? Don’t be intimidated by it or think it is impossible to understand. Even if you read only a few verses a day, God can still use it to reshape your life. Take advantage of opportunities to learn the Bible from others—your pastor, respected teachers on Christian radio, Bible studies and conferences, and Christian books; but never let these things replace your personal reading of Scripture.
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
When we come to Jesus Christ and put our faith and trust in Him, God Himself comes to live within us. We may not feel any different; we may be unaware of His presence; we may even doubt if anything has really happened to us. But it has. God now lives within us! He does this through His Holy Spirit.
Just as Jesus is fully God, so, too, the Holy Spirit is fully God. Although we can’t see Him, He is that part of God who is working and active in our world. He isn’t an impersonal force (like gravity); He is a person, just as God the Father and Christ the Son are persons—that is, they are personal in their natures. (This, incidentally, is why we shouldn’t refer to the Holy Spirit as “it” but as “He.”)
Why does God the Holy Spirit come to live within us when we give our lives to Christ? One reason is to assure us of our salvation. How do we know Christ has forgiven all our sins and given us the gift of eternal life? We know it because the Bible says so—and the Holy Spirit confirms in our hearts that this is true. The Bible says, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:16).
God has also given us the Holy Spirit to help us discover God’s will. Certainly the Bible gives us principles to live by, helping us avoid wrong and do what is right. But often we face choices that seem equally good, and we need to know which is right. Should we change jobs? Sell our house? Marry this person? Retire? The list is almost endless because life is filled with decisions. God wants to guide us as we make those decisions because He loves us and wants us to have what is best for us. God’s promise is sure: “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” (Isaiah 30:21). The Holy Spirit illuminates our minds and makes us yearn for God. He takes spiritual truth and makes it understandable to us.
The Holy Spirit also has been given to us to encourage and strengthen us in times of trouble. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness” (Romans 8:26), and this includes more than just helping us as we pray. When hard times come, He may bring to mind passages of Scripture that assure us of God’s love and protection. When temptations assail us, the Spirit strengthens us and gives us courage to fight our adversary, the devil. Paul prayed that God “out of his glorious riches . . . may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (Ephesians 3:16).
Finally, the Holy Spirit has come to change us from within. God wants to change our lives, to make us more like Christ. It is never a question of how much we have of the Spirit but of how much He has of us. The Bible says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). Is this happening in your life?
Don’t try to fight the battle of the Christian life in your own strength. Instead turn to God in submission and faith, and trust His Holy Spirit to help you.
The Gift of Prayer
Some people look on prayer as a burden or obligation, but in reality prayer is one of our greatest privileges as God’s children. Think of it: the God of the universe wants us to bring every concern to Him in prayer! I have never met anyone who spent time in daily prayer, studied God’s Word regularly, and was strong in faith who was ever discouraged for very long. The Bible says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7).
Does God always answer our prayers the way we wish He would? No, not necessarily—nor has He promised to do so. He sees the whole picture, but we don’t; He knows what is best for us, but we often don’t. Sometimes, therefore, He says no, or “Not now.” But God has promised to hear us when we pray and to answer our prayers in His time and in His way: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1 John 5:14).
Remember, however, that prayer isn’t just asking for things we want. Prayer is for every moment of our lives, not just for times of suffering or joy. Prayer is really a place, a place where you meet God in genuine conversation. True prayer includes thanking and praising Him for who He is and all He does. The Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray continually”—and not just when we are facing a crisis or want God to do something for us. No matter how dark and hopeless a situation may seem, never stop praying. Prayer should be an attitude of life. We cannot afford to be too busy to pray.
I often receive letters from invalids and older people who say, “All I can do is pray.” I’ve often answered back, “God bless you for doing the most important thing.” I can remember the comfort I felt in my early years of ministry just knowing that my mother was home praying for me. It strengthened me, and God used that information to help me stay focused and committed to the task He had given me. We need armies of pray-ers.
The Gift of Fellowship
We are not meant to be isolated from and independent of each other, either as human beings or as Christians. We need other people in our lives, and they need us. This is especially true as we seek to grow in faith. The Bible says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another” (Hebrews 10:25). A solitary Christian is inevitably a weak Christian because he or she is failing to draw strength from what God is doing in the lives of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
If you aren’t presently part of a church fellowship, ask God to guide you to a church where you can grow in your faith through biblical preaching and teaching and worship. The church is a storehouse of spiritual food. This is where our souls are fed, nourished, and developed into maturity. It is there we can “encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
The Gift of Service
Just as our bodies need exercise to be strong physically, our faith needs exercise if we are to be strong spiritually.
It has often been noted that several rivers flow into the Dead Sea, but no river flows from it. That’s why its water has become so saturated with minerals over the centuries that nothing is able to live in it. Without any outlet it indeed has become a “dead” sea. The same is true with us. If we keep faith to ourselves, if we never allow it to flow through us to enrich others, and if it has no outlet, then we will find ourselves like the Dead Sea—lifeless and spiritually dead.
God wants to use you right where you are. Every day you probably come into contact with people who will never enter a church or talk with a pastor or open a Bible. You may be the bridge God uses to bring them to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone can be a servant, no matter how inadequate he or she may feel. Moses himself protested that he could not speak for God because he was ineloquent, maybe suffering from a speech impediment (Exodus 4:10). A wonderful friend Dr. Irmhild Bärend, who serves as our editor for Decision magazine in Germany, became paralyzed some years ago. In spite of her hardships, she has a countenance that radiates her love for Christ. She is grateful for every trip to see her doctors, therapists, or caregivers because, as she says to our mutual friends, “If I were not in this wheelchair, I would not have the privilege to tell them about Jesus.”
STANDING STRONG
A young purple-leaf plum tree seemed the perfect choice: its color matched the other landscaping, and a neighbor in my community thought it would grow to shade the hot eastern corner of her home. She was wrong. Five years after planting it, the tree was stunted. It was frequently sick—attacked by insects and struck with blights—and worse, it would lean until its branches touched the ground in any strong wind. No matter how she staked it, it would not stand tall against the elements. She complained about this to a friend, so he examined the tree and identified the problem—it had never taken root. Planted close to a downspout, the tree never needed to stretch its roots beyond its infant root ball to find water. It eventually would die.
Contrast this tree with the maple sapling planted on the edge of her property the same spring. A bare-root plant, the sapling was forced to reach up for sun and out for water. Five years later, it was taller than the stunted plum tree and healthy. The Christian life should look like the life cycle of that maple sapling. After our roots of faith are planted in the fertile ground of truth, we should grow strong as we understand God’s Word, draw close to the Holy Spirit, talk to God daily in prayer, and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. As we drink from the springs of life, our roots will grow deeper when we are serving Christ. Only with a deep root system can we endure the storms of life and prepare the next generations to follow in our footsteps.
NEARING HOME WITH A MATURE FAITH
Strengthening our spiritual roots begins with God’s Word. Many have said that when they were young, they were too busy to read the Bible and memorize Scripture. Before they realized it, they had grown old and could not commit Bible verses to memory because their memories failed them. That may be true for some, but not for everyone. Many of us remember what we want to remember.
A wonderful friend of ours, Robert Morgan, wrote a little book recently about Bible memorization and states, “Our minds are vaults especially designed to stockpile the seeds of God’s Word.” In his book, he tells the story of an eighty-nine-year-old woman in his church who said, “Oh, Pastor Morgan, I’m so glad you are having us memorize [Bible] verses. I’ve already gotten started on them. It’s going to help me keep my mind fresh and young!”3 It made me smile to realize that she would keep her mind fresh and young . . . she had not allowed it to get old. There is no better deposit to make in the human mind and heart than to fill them with the treasures found in the Word of God.
We see the results of committing God’s Word to memory in the lives of Simeon and Anna, who witnessed the presentation of the Child Jesus at the Temple (Luke 2:27). Because they knew the ancient Old Testament prophecies and believed by faith that a Savior would be born in Israel, the Holy Spirit revealed the Christ Child to them in their old age. Simeon, an old man who did not want to die before knowing the Savior had come into the world, took Jesus in his arms and blessed Him, saying, “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples” (Luke 2:29–31 NKJV). Anna, “a widow of about eighty-four years . . . served God with fastings and prayers night and day . . . and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption” (Luke 2:37–38 NKJV). In the story of Simeon and Anna, we see these gifts of God’s Word, the Holy Spirit, prayer, fellowship, and service all working together to bring about remarkable blessings, and it all started with having their hearts and minds saturated with God’s Word.
My heart is always moved when I read in Scripture of the faith of the elderly. Are the truths of God nourishing your root system? We may retire from our careers, but we must never retire from being filled with the abundant gifts from God that bring hope and satisfaction.