Don't discount the value of the elderly in your life. They have much to invest into your life; and you can repay them with gratitude-- usually shown by intentionally taking time to listen to and just be with them. They are not strangers to the troubles, temptations, and wonderings of youth. They not only deal with aching bodies, but also know emotional and spiritual struggles as you do. Proverbs 16:31 (NKJV) says, "The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, If it is found in the way of righteousness."
There is an elderly Christian man my family knows who has been a real blessing to us. He purposes to not be grumpy as so many afflicted seniors. He lives joyful in the Lord, grateful. He presses on in battle for souls -- witnessing nearly every day: he goes to an ice cream shop and there reads his Bible and prays; then God brings people for him to talk to and pray with.
Recently, when we saw him, we saw a very discouraged man. He found himself able to share the burden that was on him-- the attacks of Satan; the accusations of the Devil. I was reminded once again that Satan does come to "steal, kill, and destroy." He does not give up until people reach eternity. He especially fights those who are working to advance God's Kingdom as they strive to win people to Jesus!
But I was AMAZED at what the Enemy was fighting this dear brother with.
Endeavoring to make this brother feel like a failure, the devil used several "arrows":
- Plaguing his emotions with the nagging, experiential memory of the impossibility of pleasing his father (as a child).
- Causing him to despair over human frailty: mental dullness, scholastic ineptitude, lack of success
- Blaming him for the lost condition of his children
Fighting to isolate him from God's people, the Enemy wanted him to feel unloved:
- Lack of personal connection with other church people
- Destruction of courage to even go to church when he's feeling so down.
- Not feeling valuable to the church. What can he give? Who needs him?
Discouraging him, by lying to him: you are alone:
- His peers and heroes have already gone on to Heaven. Some others have given up on serving Jesus, though they are still physically alive.
As you can see, the devil fights Christians of all ages in much the same way. But praise God! He has the victory for His people. He has saved us and He has all the grace we need to make it safely to Heaven. He's not going to bring us so far and then leave us to be ruined by Satan.
Besides praying for our brother's victory over all of the Adversary's attacks, he asked us to pray for him that:
- He keep Heaven in view, its entrance his chief objective
- He have power to speak the gospel just as he ought
- He keep sweet in all of old age
- He help his family come to knowledge of salvation
Galatians 6:2 says, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."
