The Gift of Older Christians in Your Life

Most adult Christians spend their time with people in the same life stage, and miss the wisdom of believers who have walked with God far longer. Discover what older Christians offer, and how to find one.Most of us spend our time with people in our own stage of life. Parents of young kids know other parents of young kids, and those friendships matter. But when your whole circle is people the same age and mileage as you, something gets left out. Nobody in that circle has been where you are going yet. You are all reading the same map for the first time. What you miss is a believer who has walked with God far longer, someone who can tell you He keeps His word because they have watched Him do it for decades.This episode opens with Barbara Rainey, who came to faith in college during the Jesus Movement and once heard a speaker she had never known before, Elisabeth Elliot, the missionary widow whose husband had been killed in Ecuador. Barbara wanted the kind of faith that woman had, one with some steel in it. Then Barbara married, the babies came, and her world got small fast. While her husband traveled and spoke, she was home changing diapers, and she started wondering whether her faith counted for anything now that nobody was watching her live it.Paul told a young pastor named Titus to knit the generations together in the church. Titus 2:1-5 describes older women training younger women and older men modeling self-control and sound faith for those coming behind, so the generations are mixed in together, learning from one another. Look at what the older ones bring: sound faith and patience. Patience is the kind of thing you only earn by living long enough to watch God keep His word again and again. That is the gift an older believer hands you. They have already seen God do the thing you are scared He will not do.So if you do not have someone like that right now, ask God for one, and then go looking. Find the person a couple of decades ahead of you and get near them. And if you are the older one, your ordinary presence in a younger believer's life means more than you think. The woman who mentored Barbara for years, through a simple folded newsletter that arrived in her mailbox, never once met her in person. An older believer's witness reaches further than you would guess, even at a distance.BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:Why a circle made up only of peers leaves a gift out of your spiritual lifeWhat Titus 2:1-5 says older believers offer the younger ones coming behind themA practical step for finding an older Christian to learn from, or becoming one for someone elseGo find a believer who has walked with God longer than you have, or go be one for somebody who needs it.Share This Episode:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/289Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemailWant to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast.https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/Rate and Reviewhttps://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/Connect with BartFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylivesWebsite: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.comFeeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus here: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/subscribe.