If God is for us

 

Sometimes remembering is sad or bitter.  It would be easier to drift in a nostalgic haze, avoiding some of the painful aspects of the past.  But even melancholy thoughts are essential.  An older person must come to grips with his losses and failures, and then come to grips with the larger fact of God’s power, his understanding and his forgiveness.  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his  own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?  It is God who justifies.  Who is he that condemns?”  (Romans 8:31-34).

An older person considering his past will certainly find reason for regret.  Yet this exploration should carry him beyond regret, to the point of saying, with Christ, “Not guilty!”  With that verdict on the past the future looks hopeful.  “Will he not also...graciously give us all things?”

Elders who accept Jesus’ forgiveness may learn to echo Paul:  “Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him.”  (Philippians 3:7-9).

(By Tim Stafford from the NIV Seniors' Devotional Bible)