Live long and finish strong!

Do you believe that God wants you to live a long and healthy life? How about 120 years of good health?

You need to believe for a long and healthy life! Genesis 6:3 says…Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years." By living a long and healthy life, we can be a greater help to others. We also honor God by being determined to live a long life. By living in divine health, we are able to do great exploits for God. It’s selfish to want to die early. We need the wisdom that is acquired through age in our families. This is what keeps spiritual wisdom going on in our families. This is what gives families spiritual roots and a strong spiritual foundation. You often hear me quote my dear grandmother. She was a strong Christian woman and a lifelong student of God’s word. In my younger years, I did not have the maturity to appreciate her wisdom, but now that I am a mother, I am so deeply grateful for it. She raised me from the time I was four years old and was continuously speaking God’s word to me and upon me. My goal is to pass that spiritual wisdom onto our children and they in turn will pass it onto theirs. It’s never too late to start my friend. YOU can be the one in your family to start this positive cycle of speaking God’s word over your family. YOU can be the one to change future generations!

Have you ever joked about getting older?  We must be very careful of the words we speak, even in jest, because we will have what we speak. It is not wise to speak negative things into your life. According to Mark 11:23-24, you are the prophet of your own life…"Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Since you are the prophet of your life, you should not be joking about it. Don’t joke about getting old! It opens the door for Satan. You must remember that words are containers of power and must NOT be thrown around carelessly. Many times when we make these negative statements, we are simply “searching for significance.”  That is, we are speaking to bring attention to ourselves. Unfortunately, it does bring attention, but not in a positive way. 

Living to a healthy and strong 120 years is God’s will for your life!  Deuteronomy 33:25 says, “As your days, so shall your strength be.” God says that we get stronger as we age!  Moses lived to be 120 years old and his eyes did not grow dim nor his natural force abated. When everyone at your office is coming down with the flu, you need to say, "I don’t receive that. I am healed by the stripes of Jesus.” If you feel a pain in your joints, speak and act on the word. Practicing with the little things is how you prepare for the greater battles of life. If you have been speaking God’s word over a cold or a stiff joint, then when a greater battle like arthritis comes your way, you are prepared for the fight. Of course, it’s important to take care of your body by eating healthily and getting exercise, but it’s MORE important to align your words of with God’s word. The apostle Paul said that bodily exercise profits a little but Godliness is profitable unto all things. In other words, diet and exercise are important, but they are NOT what keeps you healthy! Health comes from God and God only!  We’ve all known people that ate right and exercised and died young. We’ve also known people that lived a long life, did not eat healthy, and smoked a pack of cigarettes every day! So, we must conclude that while diet and exercise are important, they are not nearly as important as knowing God’s word.

What is the common thread among Centenarians?  A centenarian is a person who lives to or beyond the age of 100 years. There were two things that they all had in common: 1) Quick to forgive; they did not hold grudges.  2) Carefree; they didn’t let things bother them. How interesting is that?  The common thread was NOT exercise and diet. As a matter of fact, many of them didn’t eat that well at all and many of them didn’t exercise very much. But they ALL were carefree and quick to forgive. This confirms what the Bible tells us about condemnation. God warns us that self condemnation kills. Jesus tells us to anger slowly and forgive quickly because he knew that unforgiveness would destroy us. Harboring unforgiveness in your heart is like consuming a deadly poison. It destroys you from the inside out! The root of all sin is a lack of trust in God. It is people not believing God loves them. When we are in fear over our finances, our health, our job or our future we are not trusting God to take care of us. We are demonstrating, through our fear, our lack of trust in God’s love for us. This is why God tells us to approach Him as a little child. The logic of childlike faith is wonderful. A child doesn’t over complicate or over analyze God. A child simply concludes…"God made me, therefore He must love me; God sent His son to die for me, therefore he must love me.” The logic of adult unbelief is actually very stupid. Think about the Israelites situation. God sent Moses to lead them out of Egyptian slavery. Their complaining and unbelief turned a 2 week journey into 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. They complained that God must not love them because He left them to die in the wilderness. Really? Does that make any sense whatsoever? If He wanted them to die, He would have left them in Egypt. God gave Adam and Eve authority and dominion over everything on earth and we must learn to use it! We don’t have to buy into Satan’s lies of growing old with poor health and disease. We must stop agreeing with His lies! Be intentional with the words you speak! Don’t thoughtlessly throw words that speak death and destruction over your life or the lives of those you love! Don’t joke about growing old! Speak youth! Speak health! We don’t have to stop at 70 or 80 years. We don’t have to be ridden with disease and pain as we grow old! We can go 120 years and beyond healthy, vibrant and strong!

When you believe right, you live right! Right living is a result of right believing. When folks are living wrong, it is a direct result of wrong believing. When you believe that God loves you and when you believe that He has a good plan for your life, you then want to live right.  God is not interested in behavior modification, but in heart transformation. You want to feed your body healthy foods. You want to exercise your body. It all starts with YOU getting to know Christ. To know Christ is to know how special you are. To know Christ is to know yourself as God put YOU in HIM! God gave it ALL to YOU my friend. He held absolutely nothing back! He gave the most precious thing He had. He didn’t give His archangel Michael or Gabriel  He gave His son, Jesus Christ!  YOU must be incredibly special for Him to do that. When you really think about the magnitude of that, you simply must reexamine the way you speak about yourself. God treasures YOU!  He values YOU so very much! All He is asking you to do is RECEIVE His love! Once you receive that love, you start on the incredible journey of getting to know your eternal Father. WOW!!!  It will turn your life upside down my friend! Things that once bothered you or worried you will fade into the background. Once Christ becomes your focus, everything else diminishes in importance. Then Christ takes the wheel and your life finally starts to make sense.

Live long and finish strong!  It is God’s will for you to live a long, strong and healthy life! Your family needs your spiritual wisdom! Our country needs people with a Godly foundation! A wise man once said…"Only one life will soon be past and only what’s done for Christ will last."

God Bless You,

Love,

Sherry :-)