YESTERDAY WE PAUSED on the answer of psychology, that recent advances in science and technology make it possible for those past forty to be pioneers in “the new prime” of life. In other words, the new prime of life can be fifty, sixty, or even seventy. That is good. I’ve proved it to be true for myself. When I was seventy, God said, “I’m going to give you the best ten years of your life—the next ten ahead.” Those that have gone have literally been the best years of my life. I can bear the same load of work and responsibility as I did at forty-five, or fifty-five, and bear it with the same absence of fatigue and strain. Even so, suppose only science and technology were giving me this assurance instead of God. It would be a shot in the arm with a rude awakening from the effects. Without being in Christ, I would be in myself, therefore in mortality, and therefore in eventual decay and death. Science and technology can postpone, but cannot prevent decay and death. It only prolongs the agony of eventual failure.
When you are in Christ, however, then nothing in things to come can separate you. Suppose I should die before the ten best years are completed; am I out on a limb? No, they will still be the best ten years of my life, for in Christ I have eternal life. In Him there is literally no death, only larger life, so I am safe. When I went out to India fifty-two years ago, a chaplain on board ship said: “You don’t drink? You can’t live in India without drinking.” My reply was simple: “Well, I don’t have to live, I can die. A Christian has another alternative—he can die, and be better off. But if you’re not a Christian you have to live or you’re in for it!” There is nothing in things to come that can separate us. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future. In Him there is life. Life, L-I-F-E—now and forever!
O Jesus, things to come are only things coming to Thee, for Thou art the heir of the ages. All things that live will come out at Thy feet. The rest will decay and perish. So we can sing and dance at the coming victory, for there is present victory—in Thee. I thank Thee, thank Thee. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: If the Christian faith is “anticipated attainment,” then I live in that anticipated attainment now.
