“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:1-5 NIV)
“But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31 NLT)
“Now, as you can see, the LORD has kept me alive and well as he promised for all these forty-five years since Moses made this promise—even while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Today I am eighty-five years old. I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. So give me the hill country that the LORD promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anak living there in great, walled towns. But if the LORD is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the LORD said.” (Joshua 14:10-12 NLT)
We have already seen that living the abundant life of the Kingdom of Heaven brings Heaven’s benefits into our lives today. We need to daily remind ourselves that we are forgiven, healed, redeemed, crowned with kindness and mercy, and our desires are satisfied with good things. The last benefit on the list is youth. It is interesting that most translations include the words “so that” prior to saying “your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” It appears that renewed youth is the product, or result, of experiencing all of the other benefits. I think that is significant.
I have been trained to think in terms of living a relatively short life, dying, and going to Heaven. However, that was not how it was to be in the beginning. We were not designed to grow old and die. Our bodies were created with the ability to be completely regenerated at the cellular level every seven years. Adam and Eve were designed to live forever on this Earth and fill it with offspring that would live here forever as well. It was not God’s original desire or design for them to go to Heaven. As a matter of fact, in the beginning of the book of Genesis it appears that God’s desire was to hang out here on Earth with his children. His desire was disrupted by Adam and Eve’s sin. At the end of the book of Revelation it is clear that once Satan has been cast into Hell, and the Earth has been made new, God will finish what He originally planned and come dwell with us on the Earth.
Sickness, aging, and death entered this Earth through Satan when Adam and Eve sinned. The Bible clearly states that the wages of sin is death (spiritual and physical). It also clearly states that death is our enemy. As a believer I have already been freed from spiritual death. I am a born again child of God; a new creation in Christ Jesus. In the same way that forgiveness frees me from the power of sin, and healing overcomes sickness and disease, youth fights the effects of aging. The Bible does not promise to turn back the hands of time and make me young again, however it does promise to renew my youth even in old age. In Romans 8:11 Paul wrote that the Holy Spirit gives life to my mortal (death bound) body. The more that I look into what the Bible says, and stop focusing on what I see and hear around me, the more convinced I become that I have the same opportunity, and responsibility, to walk by faith in the area of aging that I do in any area of life. I am going to believe for youth, and fight the good fight of faith when it comes to aging without growing old. regardless of outcome, in Christ I can’t lose.
The Bible gives many examples of people who lived far beyond what we consider to be normal lifespans today. Caleb thrived at 85. Moses had not lost any of his physical strength or eye sight at 120. Who knows how many more years he would have lived if he had not blown it and lost his assignment to take the nation of Israel into the Promised Land. Abraham remarried at about 130 and he and his new wife had children and raised them together until He died in good health at 175.
I am going to stay on this benefit of youth for a few days so that together we can see not only what the benefit of youth is, but why it is the intended product of experiencing all of the other benefits.
I for one am going to make sure that I never forget…
…Eric’s Life Lesson # 38: “There are benefits to living in the Kingdom of Heaven today (and even more yet to come).” Part 8: Youth…Renewed