Older and Improved?

by Shane Williams
in The Lilbourn Light, Vol. 10, No. 7, Nov. 2009.

We've all heard television commercials that tell us about a product that's "new and improved." This is in contrast to an older and therefore inferior product. At least that is what they are hoping will cause you to buy the "new" item. No matter how hard you and I try none of us can hold back the natural process of aging. We can exercise, eat right, take vitamins, and put on moisturizing lotions, but guess what...we still get older. That indisputable truth is found in II Corinthians 4:16, where Paul says: "Our outward man is perishing."

As bad as that sounds, though, there is good news in all of this. At the same time, our bodies rush with determination toward destruction, we can enjoy a youthful strength in our walk with God. Through the constant renewal of our "Inward man" (II Corinthians 4:16), we grow more and more prepared to be with God. "Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day."

Spiritual age does not have the same effect as physical age. Instead of slowing down as we walk longer with God, we should be enjoying a little more spring in our step. The longer we have fellowship with Him, the better off we should be. We may be getting older on the outside but we can be "older and improved" inwardly.

We should be growing spiritually. The difficulties we bear are helping us store up heavenly glory, not weighing us down. It is true -- if you're walking with Christ, you're not just getting older, you're getting better.

"For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (II Corinthians 5:1).