Fruitful to the Finish

This episode contains portions from the following programs:

"The Gracious Woman"

"WANTED: Older Women to Disciple Younger Women"

"Who's Mentoring You?"

"Grounded in All Seasons"

-----------------

Dannah Gresh: “The world is your oyster.” 

At least, they say that when you’re young, because generally, the future looks bright.You’re growing, becoming who God made you to be! You are brimming with a sense of purpose. 

But then . . . the years pass. Seasons change. You start finding . . . is that gray hair??? Then . . . wrinkles . . . and a few more wrinkles. You didn’t know it was possible to have wrinkles and still get a zit! Bummer.

No one is immune from getting older. And while we fight it with our anti-aging serums and the tips and tricks to feel young again, the reality is our bodies do age. And, God gives us purpose in our later years, just as he does when we’re younger. It will likely look different, but ultimately our calling can still be strong as we continue to know and love the Lord, and make Him known. 

So how do our lives bear fruit when we’re older? How do we keep producing fruit as we age? We’re about to get a big dose of wisdom as we look to Scripture and hear from some women who have arrived in their golden years.

First, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is giving us a glimpse into the life of Anna from the Bible. Now, let me just say, this is good stuff you’re about to hear . . . no matter your age. Don’t miss this. In fact, let me grab my Bible. Anna is only mentioned in three verses, yet there is much to gain from this short passage. You can turn there if you’d like. I’m going to read from Luke chapter 2, verses 36–38. 

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Oh, I love that. She began to speak about God “to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

Here’s Nancy to tell us more. 

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: You know our culture; just look at the magazines, the advertisements. It doesn’t esteem old age, does it? It esteems youthfulness. You either have to be young, or you have to work very hard and pay a lot of money to look young. And it gets harder and harder, as some of us can attest!

But the world does not place value on the wisdom of age, on maturity. God places great value on the wisdom that can come with age if you’ve been following Christ and practicing His principles in your life.

I want to remind those of us who are younger women and those who are older women (you decide which you are) that older women can have great spiritual wisdom, impact, and fruitfulness.

If you’re a younger woman, that means you need to listen to and solicit the wisdom of older women. If you’re an older woman, that means God isn’t done using you. Your life is not through. There’s usefulness yet to be had for you; and we see that in spades as we go through the life of Anna.

We also see that not only was she advanced in years, but she was a widow. She had lost her husband at a young age, possibly even when she was still a teenager, and then faced the rest of her life alone. This was in a culture when it would have been very difficult for a woman to survive as a widow unless she had a relative who could provide for her support.

She’s a woman who really would have had to trust God. She’d been through a lot. She knew about loneliness. She knew about being alone and being perhaps close to destitution at points. We don’t know those details. Her parents had undoubtedly died by now, if she was 103 or 104. Certainly her parents had died by now. She was alone in the world, humanly speaking.

But that aloneness put her in a position where she gravitated to the Friend who sticks closer than a brother. She gravitated to the Lord.

I thought of the verse as I studied her life from Psalm 73: "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing I desire on earth besides you." Here's a woman who found God to be her great desire and enough to take her all the way through old age—many, many years, decades, as a widow.

I hope that’s an encouragement to some of you who may be widows, and many women in this room who will at one time or another face the season of life that is widowhood: God is the God who can sustain through each season of life.

One of the things I love about Anna is that she was a woman who was faithful to the Lord in each season of life. Each season of life had for her, as it does for us, its different responsibilities and its different challenges. She was faithful in each of those, and she found God to be sufficient for her in each of those life seasons.

There are actually three life seasons mentioned in these verses that Anna went through. It doesn’t give us great detail about them, but it alludes to them.

First of all, she went through a period of time, not long, but where she was single as an unmarried woman never having been married. She didn’t live that way many years, but it says that until she married she was a virgin.

Then she went through the season of being a wife. Again, only seven years that she lived as a wife, but it says she “lived with her husband seven years” until she became a widow. Here’s a woman who was faithful “until death do us part.”

It doesn’t tell us how she lived as a wife, what kind of wife she was; but looking at what kind of older woman she was, I think we can speculate that she was a woman who was faithful as a wife. Surely she grew in those years spiritually, but she was a woman who lived with her husband until she became a widow. She was faithful in the marriage season of life, in being a wife.

And then in what, for her, was the longest season of her life, as a widow for eighty-four years, perhaps; she lived in dependence on the Lord. She served Him all the way until the finish line.

She didn’t become bitter. She didn’t become a crusty, old, cantankerous lady. She didn’t waste her life flitting around from one activity to another. She lived a life that was purposeful; it was intentional; it was fruitful, and it was God-centered—as a single, unmarried woman, as a wife, and as a widow.

As a result, her life has had an impact on multiple generations, including (aren’t you glad?) our lives today.

I don’t know what season of life you may be in right now, maritally or otherwise. We have women in this room who are in many seasons of life, from younger to older—different marital status, different work and home status, different seasons that God has called us to.

The question is: Are you being faithful, and are you finding God’s grace in the midst of whatever season you’re in right now?

As you look to the future, can you look to the future without fear, knowing that God will be enough for you in each season of life? And doesn’t it challenge you (it does me, as I think about Anna’s life) to realize that if I’m faithful to God and find His grace to be sufficient in this season of life, wherever God has put me, that my life will be fruitful and will have an impact on other lives, perhaps for generations to come?

Don’t underestimate the significance of your faithfulness to God in this season of life. You may think, “My life is obscure. It’s not touching anybody. I’m at home with these three, little kids all day long, day in and day out. My life’s not touching anybody.”

Anna may have thought that for years. “My life’s not touching anybody.” Here’s this widow, alone; yet her life is touching us today in God’s providence. It’s been preserved for us.

Your life will go on and bear fruit, potentially for generations to come, if you will be faithful to God in whatever season He has placed you now and in whatever seasons He has ahead for you.

Dannah: Yes, there’s so much we can learn from the life of Anna, no matter our stage of life. You can hear even more insight in the full series from Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. That link is in the transcript of today’s episode. 

I want us to focus on the idea of being faithful where you are now—no matter your age. Because today matters . . . this moment matters. If you’re a younger woman, how you live now has an impact on who you will be as an older woman. And if you are older, you are making an impact on the people around you. You have a tremendous opportunity to invest in the lives of other women, especially the younger ones. 

I had the joy of talking with my mom, Kay Barker, about the importance of older to younger women relationships a few years ago on Revive Our Hearts. One of my favorite interviews actually! Now, at the time my mother was hosting a weekly Bible study in her home called Soup for the Soul. And the group just happened to be studying Nancy’s book, Adorned. Here’s a snippet of our conversation. My mom’s starting off with something Nancy wrote in Adorned.

Kay Barker: One quote that I like, she said, in her book, “Women don’t wake up at eighty-nine and suddenly find themselves spiritually fruitful and blossoming.” And I think we think that, “Well, once I age, I can do this.” But it’s now. It’s now. We don’t know if we’re going to age and blossom later.

Dannah: That’s true.

Kay: We have today, but we don’t have tomorrow.

Dannah: So, Mom, I want to ask you this: Let’s say there’s a woman listening who is your age, which we don’t need to actually say your age. (laughter)

Kay: Thank you.

Dannah: (Laughing.) You’re welcome. But she’s older, Mom. She’s a grandmother, maybe a great-grandmother, and she’s feeling a little bit like, “I think I don’t fit in here in this Bible study anymore. I’m going to find a Bible study with women my own age,” or “I’m just going to stop doing Bible study because I’ve done them all.”

What would you say to her right now?

Kay: I would say that’s a mistake because I felt the same way, but now that I’ve experienced the energy and the love, and just the . . . all the things that I get. I mean, if you give of yourself, God’s going to give back a whole lot more. And that’s what He’s doing in this study, I think, to all of us. He’s giving back so much more than we could ever give.

So I would encourage her to reach out to the younger women and feel like you, too, are a younger woman.

Dannah: As you’ve obeyed the Lord and followed through on being a part of this Bible study, in what kinds of ways has God rewarded you and shown you that He’s actually moving and opening your home to these women is fruitful?

Kay: Well, I think the third or fourth week . . We try to stick to a time frame because these are young mothers. They have children. They have to get up in the morning and get them off to school, or whatever. So we try to end the study by 8:15, 8:30 at the latest.

But one night, everyone had gone, and there were two mothers, two young mothers, sitting on the floor, weeping and praying together. And Elaine said to me, “Should we send them home? Should I tell them they have to leave?” 

And I said, “No. This is what it’s all about. They’re sharing in each other’s lives and praying for each other. And that’s what it’s all about. Don’t tell them to go home. They can stay for the night if they want to.”

Dannah: If you’re an older woman, you have so much potential to impact the lives of younger women. As my mom can attest to, God will lead you. He will equip you as you reach out to the women in your life. 

Now we’re going to hear from Missy Babcock who was the founder of the women’s Bible study that met in my mom’s home. And her mentor is . . .  my mom! (I don’t mind sharing her.) Here’s a piece of my discussion with Missy talking about the impact of mentorship. 

Missy Babcock: The mentor relationship in my life is two-fold in that I am both a mentor and a mentee. 

Dannah: You’re right there sandwiched in the middle, just like me.

Missy: I am. It’s an interesting place to be, because as I’ve been praying and searching for my place in this moment, in my spiritual life, I’ve wondered where that was. I’ve also recognized that as a mentor to younger women, I’m able to give some wisdom and some direction and some honesty, but I’m also in a place where I need that myself.

I need the honesty that I’m getting from Kay, as a mentor to me, when I really need to hear answers that aren’t always what I want to hear but what I need to hear.

Dannah: She tells you some things that you don’t want to hear?

Missy: Let’s just say: you don’t always agree with what you’re hearing, but you know that it’s what you need to hear.

Dannah: Yes.

Missy: And, as you said about submission, it’s like you don’t always want to submit, but sometimes you know that that’s what you need to do in order to get to the next place. 

Dannah: So, as you’re recognizing, “I’m mentoring women; I’m pouring out. I need someone pouring into me,” you felt a little bit of magnetism toward Kay, my mom, because you had some similarities. What would you say to the woman who is in her church and she’s pouring out into other women, and doesn’t really feel like she’s getting what she needs? 

She’s not being poured into, but she feels a magnetism toward someone. Maybe it’s through horses or house or Pilates class or whatever. What advice would you give her? What should she do to make this relationship move to the next level?

Missy: I think that mentor relationships that are the best are usually starting with a friendship and not a program. I think Kay and I have already established the friendship, and as you make that relationship stronger by spending time together, I think the mentoring part just kind of grows organically. You start asking the questions; you start opening up your heart; you start telling your secrets.

It’s hard to be in a situation where you can be open and honest and vulnerable with someone. I think that women are looking for that. I think we need our girlfriends. You know, some of us are single and some of us are married in our Bible study, some of us are divorced. And the common denominator is, we need our girlfriends.

We need that girl talk, that honesty, that vulnerability, that, “I get where you are right now. I understand,” or “I don’t understand but what I would love to help you anyway.”

Dannah: That was Missy Babcock, talking to me about mentoring! Mentor relationships are best when they start with friendship, not a program. Look around. Who is your older or younger friend? Could God be up to something there?

Well, there’s no way I’d put together a program on aging and influencing without including this next woman: Susan Hunt! She’s pretty beloved around here at Revive Our Hearts. Not just by our team, but by our listeners. If you don’t know who she is, well, I want to say you’re about to meet a legend, but that’s not what it’s about. Susan’s life points to Jesus. So let me put it this way: you’re about to meet a legacy-leaving woman! At one of our past Revive events, Susan taught out of Psalm 92 and encouraged us to “flourish” in all seasons of life. Here’s Susan Hunt.

Susan Hunt: Proverbs 4. The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which becomes brighter and brighter until full day. (Prov. 4:18) 

Girls, it’s true. My physical eyesight is dimmer and dimmer, but my spiritual eyesight is brighter and more vivid. The opposite, in verse 19, is also true: 

The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.

We’re grieved and shocked by the cultural chaos, the deep darkness, and people not even knowing what causes such despair and sadness and distress. But for the righteous the path gets brighter and brighter, because God’s Word is the lamp for our feet and the light for our path. God’s Word renews our minds and equips us to think biblically, to think beyond what is seen to the unseen, eternal realities. Then slowly, as our hearts are transformed, we connect the eternal realities to our earthly realities, and our theology becomes our doxology.

J.I. Packer wrote, “The older I get, the more I want to sing my faith and get others singing it with me. Theology is for doxology. The first thing to do with it is to turn it into praise and thus honor the God who is its subject,” which is what Ephesians 1 tells us. We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to praise His glorious grace. This is what we were made for! Our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

I was in my twenties when this profound statement captured my imagination, because it answered the burning question in my heart: “Why am I here?” Then gradually, I began to understand that my purpose is to become a part of the redemptive history, part of putting God’s glorious grace on display in a broken world. It focuses me on the grand reality thatthe gospel is big enough, good enough, and powerful enough to make every moment of every season of life glorious and significant.

Will you turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 92? Psalm 92 gives a poetic picture of the path of the righteous. It shows us how to glorify and enjoy God. It crescendos with the extraordinary promise that the path will get brighter and brighter. 

The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. . . . They still bear fruit in old age. (Psalm 92:12, 14)

Who flourishes? The righteous ones! 

What does it mean to flourish? It doesn’t necessarily mean doing more; it means becoming more like Jesus. As counterintuitive as it sounds, flourishing is the progressive death of self and the growth of the life of Christ in us.

This psalm is very personal for me. I began studying it about three years ago. Then I had been praying and reading it into my life for about a year when my husband went to heaven, and I became a widow. In the grief and fatigue of Gene’s illness and the unfamiliar place of widowhood, the truths of Psalm 92 went from my head to my heart, and I experienced the reality of these truths.

It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to Your name, O Most High. (Psalm 92:1) 

It is good to declare His steadfast love and faithfulness morning and evening. (Psalm 92:2)

“Steadfast love” is the Hebrew word hesed, a rich word full of meaning. It means God’s covenant commitment of love and loyalty to keep every promise, no matter what it cost Him. We see the full expression of hesed at the cross. Talking about God’s steadfast love and faithfulness is good for our souls, and it’s good for others.

For you, O LORD, have made me glad by Your work; at the works of Your hands I sing for joy. (Psalm 92:4)

Then Psalm 92:5–7 reminds us of the compelling contrast between the path of the righteous and the path of the wicked. This Sabbath song does not blur these two worldviews, and neither should we blur them in our lives. These verses clearly show the destiny and the destination of those who know and worship God and those who do not.

How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep! The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this; that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever. (Psalm 92:5–7)

Verse 6 is not talking about our mental capacity but our spiritual capacity. The word translated “stupid” is from the Hebrew word for “brutish.” Dr. James Boice wrote, 

It is our calling to look up to God and become like God, in whose image we are made; but if we will not look up, the only place we will be able to look is down, and we will begin to behave like an animal.

The question is, am I becoming beautiful like Christ, or am I becoming brutish?

The righteous flourish like a palm tree, they grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD: they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green. (Psalm 92:12–14)

We flourish in the courts of the Lord as we share the gospel and our lives with one another. Friendships are formed as we keep the nursery together or plan an event together or take a meal to a grieving family. Over time, friendships flourish, and we’re privileged to make the sacred journey to the edges of heaven with a gospel friend.

Titus 2 relationships between older and younger women happen in God’s church, as one generation shows and tells the next generation of women how to be life-givers. It’s in the courts of the Lord that we learn to love one another, pray for one another, repent to one another, and forgive one another. When we walk the righteous path together, we become a joyful community of love and unity where we serve the Lord with gladness and serve one another in love. We become those who give a drink of water to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, and who will one day hear Jesus say, “When you did it for one of the least of these my brothers, you didit for me” (Matt. 25:40).

Dannah: Are you flourishing in your season of life? Susan Hunt at the ripe age of retired, but is still serving Jesus. I am at the ripe age of new-grandma, still-parenting-young-adults. How about you? Maybe pull your Bible out this weekend and dig deeper into Psalm 92 with Susan Hunt. I’ll put the link to her full message in the transcript at ReviveOurHearts.com! 

Here at Revive Our Hearts, we want to do all we can to help you experience the fruitfulness God wants you to have. 

If you’ve been blessed by this ministry, would you consider making a donation to support our ongoing outreaches? This weekend is the last opportunity you’ll have to help us reach our matching gift goal of $2.1 million. Some friends of Revive Our Hearts are offering to match your gift, up to that total amount of $2.1 million. But we need to hear from you before 11:59 Sunday night (EST).

You can give a gift by calling 1-800-569-5959, or go to ReviveOurHearts.com and click where it says “Donate.” 

Thank you so much for praying for us, and thanks for giving, too. We need it more than you realize.

Have a happy, happy new year! On our daily program this coming week on Revive Our Hearts, Nancy’s going to talk about us getting into God’s Word and getting God’s Word into us. I hope you’ll join us for that.

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

Revive Our Hearts Weekend is calling you to freedom, fullness and fruitfulness in Christ.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.