Dear Ones,
So sorry I sent out today’s devotion yesterday and so you got the same one today as well. I am sending you now the one that was for yesterday, as I didn’t catch that then.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
We all age and our bodies begin to fall apart, but hopefully our souls are being mellowed. It takes courage to grow old, although we really don’t have a choice, and many live in pain with restricted activity. But each person has value, even if we aren’t high on the productivity scale, and each one brings character into the lives of others. Something sad happens when elderly people seem to become invisible to others in society, sending a message that they don’t have value.

But take notice when you read your Bible, that many extraordinary things happened through old people. I think first of Caleb, who was one of the spies that didn’t weaken at the sight of the size of the enemy and wanted to take the land God promised. He was in 85 years old when he went to war, and claimed the hill country for his descendants. He fought as hard as when he was forty years old to claim his piece of land. You can read of Abraham and others who would be considered old when God used them to bring change.

Now some try to stop the aging process and go through cosmetic surgeries, marry someone much younger, take Viagra, etc. We should try to stay healthy, but we also need to accept our age. There are those that are full of anger as they age, but perhaps it really is letting out the anger that has been stored up. How much better to make peace as we grow old and to shed our egos! We need to let go of our resentments and bitterness, and instead be forgiving, grateful and surrender. Dying is the ultimate surrender, so our prior health issues prepare us for letting go, helping us realize we are not in charge. It seems to be true that we are remembered more for the goodness of our hearts and our fruitfulness than our achievements.

No matter how helpless we may be before we die, we can know that Jesus was in that position as he faced death. He could have called on 10,000 angels, but instead he gives His death to us through passivity after His arrest. He was ministered to by others up to the point of his death.

Just as Jesus, we can give our deaths as our final gift to others.

Challenge for today: Remember someone whom you loved that has died, and think of what was best in them that was left behind for you to remember them.