Don’t Get Sick When You Get Old
God’s desire that you be in health (3 John 2) has no age limit. As long as you are on this earth, God wants you well. “By whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24) applies in old age, too! Therefore, you do not have to be afflicted with the diseases that often come on older people. You are still redeemed from every sickness, and you can still flourish.
Psalm 92:13-14:
Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.
It is the devil’s lie that you have to become senile and decrepit and have to utterly depend on others in some facility to care for you when you get old. God says that you can flourish in old age. Look at Moses, who lived to be 120, yet “his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated” (Deuteronomy 34:7), or Caleb, who was still as strong and ready to slay giants at 85 as he was at 40 (Joshua 14:10-12). If those Old Covenant men of God were able to do that, surely a New Covenant believer must be able to do it! So I’m not going to sing about a coming day when my strength is failing and confess that I’m weak and poor. (I wish people paid more attention to the words of the songs they select.)
You do not have to get sick to die. You can choose to go home to be with the Lord when you are satisfied. Paul said that he had a choice to depart and be with Christ or to stay on the earth, which was more needful for the people (Philippians 1:22-23). It was Paul’s choice, not the devil’s choice through sickness.
You don’t have to age the same way the world does. Satan, not God, was the one who put premature wrinkles on Job (Job 16:8). This does not mean that you are under God’s judgment if you get wrinkles; Job blamed everything that the devil was doing on God. Also, there’s no condemnation if you get some wrinkles when you get older, but Satan is the one who wants you to age prematurely.
God concludes Psalm 91 by saying that He will satisfy you with long life and show you His salvation. Long life is not satisfying if it is spent wasting away in pain or debility in a nursing home (or assisted living center, or whatever euphemism is currently in vogue for a place that cares for those who can’t care for themselves). God doesn’t want to torture you with long life. He doesn’t want you to spend your later years wishing you could die. He wants your long life to be satisfying, and He wants to show you His salvation, including healing, throughout your long, satisfying life!
Jesus never refused to heal someone because of his age. You won’t find anywhere in the gospels where He said, “You’re too OLD, and besides, God wants to use that disease to call you home because it’s your FINAL ILLNESS, so I won’t heal you.” If Jesus never said it then, He’ll never say it today. He healed ALL kinds of diseases, and this would include what we consider old-age illnesses. He hasn’t changed (Hebrews 13:8), so He is just as willing to heal all your diseases, including “old-age” diseases, as He ever was.
Don’t even joke about having “senior moments” – unless you want to build into your thinking the idea that you have to start mentally “losing it” when you get older. Likewise, don’t blame sickness on your age, as if to say that you HAVE to have a certain condition because you’re getting older. Don’t get a “Wait until you get to be my age, you young whipper-snapper!” attitude as some do when you preach these things! What that says is that you accept sickness as part of aging, which it is clear from Scripture that you should not do!
Instead of believing that your body has to break down, believe that God renews your youth like the eagle’s (Psalm 103:5). Instead of making “old man grunts,” thank God that you are fit and flourishing even in old age. Rather than saying to everyone, “I’m getting too old for this!” it would be better to say, “I’m NOT too old for this!” Surely if Caleb and Moses could keep their strength under an inferior covenant, we should not expect to fall apart physically and be beset with ailments with various medical names that describe body parts that stop functioning correctly! Be sure that Jesus’ words are right – you WILL have what you say and believe with your heart! So it would behoove you to make sure that what you’re saying and believing about yourself is the same thing that the BIBLE says about you!
I had a grandmother who told me from the time I was a child that she was getting old and someday she’d have to be put away in a home. She said it and believed it, and that’s what happened. Don’t make her mistake. That doesn’t have to happen to you!
Until you’re ready to go home to your eternal reward, healing belongs to you, so believe God and stay healthy! Don’t ever accept any illness because you think you’re so old that you have to put up with it. You don’t have to put up with ANY form of disease no matter how old you are!
For more on this topic, see the answer to the Objection: If You Could Always Get Healed, You Would Live Forever.