A Place For The Young And A Place For The Old -Part One

I was watching one of my favorite series recently, Masterchef Australia. I love this show so much. Anyway, the latest season is champions versus fans or something like that. There was one contestant who was the first winner of Masterchef Australia who is probably in her late fifties or sixties I think.

She was talking about how she was struggling with the fact that she didn’t think she had nothing much to offer. She didn’t think she had anything new to bring to the table amongst a thriving and growing industry. The home cooks have got so much better, the creativity has blown through the roof.

And that struck a cord with me because in the world older people have been for the most part been relegated to the back. They are overlooked and not considered much but that is not the case in God’s kingdom. In His kingdom there is a place for both the young and the old. The world may be quick to tell you when your expiry date is but not so with God.

As far as I am concerned our expiry date is when we die and everything else before that is open game. No matter how young or old you are know that God wants to use you. And as you look into the word you will see a place for the young and a place for the old.

I think about Caleb who was eighty five years old when he went to Joshua and asked for his mountain. He didn’t let his age limit him. His faith was in God and that’s all that mattered. Age was certainly just a number in his case.

Don’t let age stop you from walking into what God has called you to do. He has so much in store for you. Remember Abraham and Sarah.

They had to wait for a really long time to see the fulfillment of what God had promised them but they kept their eyes on Him. They didn’t let their age or what people said about their age stop them!

“And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead—and so was Sarah’s womb.

Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous.”

Romans 4:19, 22 NLT

This is part one of this series so I will be talking about the young people in the next post.

I will see you next week.

God bless you friends!

Don’t take your “foot off the pedal”….keep hoping and trusting!

“One day some men from the tribe of Judah went to Joshua at Gilgal. One of those men was Caleb

son of Jephunneh. He said to Joshua, “You remember what the Lord said at Kadesh Barnea. He was

speaking to the prophet Moses about you and me. 

Moses, the Lord’s servant, sent me to look at the land where we were going. I was 40 years old then.”

Joshua 14:6, 7

 

Caleb is officially one of my favorite bible characters now. I get pumped up every time I read

his story. He was one of the spies that was sent out to spy out the promise land and he was one

of two spies who believed YAH would deliver the Canaanites into their hands.

His faith in YAH was crazy!

His story challenged me so much. In Joshua 14, he goes to Joshua to ask for the mountain YAH promised

him all that time ago.  Let me rephrase that, he tells Joshua to give him the mountain YAH promised

him. There was no asking…..

 

The crazy thing about this story is that Caleb was promised the mountain when he was 40 years old.

And at the age of 85 he was ready to take what YAH promised him. (Joshua 14:10) He waited 45 years for

the Lord’s promise. His faith didn’t waver in all that time. He held on firmly to what the Lord promised him.

 

I don’t know about you but my faith is stirred every time I read that. The Lord is faithful and will

not fail to fulfill what He promised us. We need to make sure we don’t give up and falter in our faith.

If you do falter then get back up. Put your hope in the Lord again. Don’t stay down, don’t

stay discouraged.

No matter how long it has been, hold on to your faith. Hold on to the Lord’s promise.

Caleb didn’t let his age stop him from possessing the Lord’s promise.

At 40 his faith was in YAH and at 85 his faith was still in YAH and stronger than ever!

Don’t let anything stop you from trusting YAH.

 

He never gave up or lost hope. He was patient and confident in the Lord’s faithfulness! His trust

was not in himself, no. His faith was in the Lord.

 

“So give me the mountain country the Lord promised me that day long ago. Back then you heard that

the Anakite people lived there. And the cities were large and well protected. 

But now with the Lord helping me, I will force them out, just as the Lord said.” (italics mine)

Joshua 14:12

 

Wow! That faith!

 

It’s not too late. The Lord has not forgotten about you so don’t throw in the towel! Hold on to the promise

even though it seems like it’s not going to happen.

To be honest with you, there were things I stopped praying about but after reading about Caleb I am back.

That’s what the Lord wants, for us to keep holding on to the promises He has made. No matter what people say,

hold on to the promise.

Don’t let go it. The Lord is faithful and will fulfill what He promised!

 

ACT ON IT – Firstly, write down the things YAH promised you.

Secondly, Go boldly to YAH and ask Him for those things you have stopped praying about

Thirdly, Talk to someone about it.

And lastly, Is there something you need to start doing? Caleb’s faith was in the Lord but he

had to go fight. What do you need to do today as a demonstration of your faith in YAH?

 

And that is it friends. Hold on to the promise of the Lord until he brings it to pass. There will be plenty

opportunity to give up but don’t. The Lord is is faithful to us always!

Bless you.

Rolain

The old man who was fully convinced……

 

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

“In hope against hope Abraham believed that he would

become a father of many nations, as he had been promised

[by God]: “So [numberless] SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS

BE,”

Without becoming weak in faith he considered his own body,

now as good as dead [for producing children] since he was

about  a hundred years old, and [he considered] the deadness

of Sarah’s womb.

But he did not doubt or waver in unbelief concerning the

promise of God, but he grew strong and empowered by faith,

giving glory to God being fully convinced that God had the

power to do what He had promised.

Romans 4: 18-21

 

I have been really impacted by Abraham. There is so

much wisdom we can extract from his story of faith. I read

the above passage of scripture yesterday and it spoke to me

deeply.

As we all know God had an amazing plan for Abraham. He

took him outside and showed him something glorious,

something amazing! (read my last post which went into 

great detail about what God showed him)

But there was a problem, Abraham couldn’t have children

because he was old. His body was dead!

His wife Sarah was in the same boat. She was barren and way

past the age of child bearing. So yeah, that was a problem!

 

What spoke to me though was how Abraham considered all

these factors but still trusted God. He believed what God

promised would come to pass. He never wavered or doubted!

He didn’t allow his dead body and Sarah’s deadened womb to

dictate what he could and could not receive. He didn’t allow

those things to stop him from receiving what God had

promised him.

He considered his own dead body and considered Sarah’s

barren and deadened womb but didn’t allow that to hinder

his faith in God!

 

That blows my mind!

 

The word tells us, ‘He was fully convinced that God had 

the power to do what He had promised.’ !!!!

 

Just because our circumstances are difficult or seemingly

impossible doesn’t mean we should stop trusting in God.

We should be fully convinced that God will come through

for us. I don’t know how Abraham did it because I have

failed in my faith numerous times. There have been times

I doubted God. But I think the important thing is to get up

when we failed. That’s what I did. I got up again and again.

I repented and moved ahead in my faith.

 

The lesson is this: Wherever you are in life, trust God. Everything

may be working against you but God is true to His word.

Stop looking at what’s happening around you. Don’t let that

determine what you should trust God for.

Faith doesn’t wait for the circumstances around you to be

favourable to work. Instead, it just works despite what is

happening around you!

 

There is so much I believe God wants me to do and to be

honest I looked at what was in my hands. I got discouraged

because what was in my hands was very little. It was

insignificant. I wanted to try and think up a plan but I read

the passage of scripture I shared in the beginning and

realised God didn’t want me to look at what I had. He didn’t

want me to rely on my own strength and He most definitely

didn’t want me deciding what I could and couldn’t do based on

what I had or how much I got paid and so on. He wanted

me to trust Him!

 

As I end I would like to leave you with two questions?

 

Are you looking at what is in your hand as you trust God?

Are you allowing what is happening around you to determine

what you should trust God for?

 

Rolain

 

photo credit: google images