Virginia Brandt Berg (1898-1968)
(The song: "Jesus Led Me All the Way")
-- A precious message in that song! And the best of it all is that it's true, that the Lord has led us all the way!
Someone asked me the other day, "Why do you so often tell your age?" -- Well, I think it's wonderful how the Lord has led and kept me through so many years! I'm in my 80th year, and I'll tell it again!
I like to shout it from the housetops because it does glorify the Lord, what the Lord has done. It's such a miracle when I was such a pitiful invalid in bed for about 5 years -- the broken back and all that happened to me -- and here the Lord has led all the way so wonderfully!
I wouldn't fear old age if I were you, some of you that are so fearful about it and you think that old age brings all sorts of troubles and inconveniences and is so miserable! Life as a Christian has been gloriously adventurous, excitingly wonderful, unbelievably victorious at times, through the Lord Jesus Christ.
But I do confess that without the Lord life would have been tediously humdrum and filled with disappointments and failures. I've talked to so many people that are just haunted by a sense of futility and they're restless and they have an unnamed hunger because they don't have the Lord and they don't have real faith in God.
How many people do you know, especially of older people, that have radiant, joyful faces? So many faces of the old people that you pass by on the streets are fear-ridden and unhappy, and the reason for that is their lack of faith in God. They don't have an anchor in the time of storm, they don't have the Lord to trust in!
So there isn't joy upon the face because the joy isn't in the heart. I think I told you once about what Gypsy Smith said, he talked about a dear old saint of God, a dear old mother in Israel that he had had fellowship with in the Lord. He said that Jesus just shone out on her face, that her face was like "an old cathedral lighted up for evening worship!"
Sometimes we meet some of the old people that are like that, they have such trust in God and they testify to the wonderful victories along the way and their experience in life: It's because they have believed the Lord! They say, "He is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?
"The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" (Ps.27:1,2) -- I don't even fear the years! Come what may, I'm in God's hands, He's a loving Father, and I know that all things will work together for good to them that love God! (Ro.8:28) What a glorious standard to live by! It's like Raymond Richy used to say, "It just gets gooder and gooder all the time!"
I found this little poem which I would truly say is my testimony:
I'm not looking for the sunset
As the swift years come and go.
I'm looking for the sunrise
Of the golden morning glow.
Where the light of Heaven's glory
Will break forth upon my sight,
In the land that knows no sunset
Nor the darkness of the night.
I'm not going down the pathway
T'ward the setting of the sun,
Where the shadows ever deepen
When the day at last is done.
I'm walking up the hillside
Where the sunshine lights the way
To the glory of the sunrise
Of God's never-ending day.
I'm not going down, but upward
And the path is never dim!
For the day grows ever brighter
As I journey on with Him!
My eyes are on the hilltops
Waiting for the sun to rise,
Waiting for His invitation
To the Home beyond the skies!
Jesus talked about faith and chided the people of His day of having so little faith. Sometimes we see how fearful people are and how they even fear the years that are coming upon them. God doesn't change with the years. The Lord's just the same and His promises are just as true!
His promises are just as much for one who's old as they are for one who's young! He remains ever the same! God's Word says, "O faithless generation, how long must I be with you?" -- Jesus chided the people of His day of having so little faith. Some people are so worried about the cares of life, and Jesus spoke to them,
And said, "O ye of little faith, your Father knows you have need of these things." -- When the years come upon you, He'll know what your needs are just the same as when you were young and full of life and vitality. None of the promises are changed at all! The verse "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" works just as well at 80 as it did at 18!
Jesus was surprised at the lack of faith among His own people and at the remarkable faith of foreigners like the Roman Centurion or the woman of Syrophenician, when His own people had so little faith! Oh, I'm amazed sometimes at the lack of faith I meet amongst the dear ones that have been Christians for so long!
In times of supreme test, God has revealed Himself, and I find Him so real that I can just shout with absolute confidence, "I know in Whom I have believed!" (2Tim.1:12) -- In sudden emergencies, in prolonged trials, oh, He so fulfills His Word, and the promise in this verse "I will in no wise fail thee." (He.13:5,6)
"For He Himself hath said, I will in no wise fail thee, nor will I in any wise forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what men shall do unto me." -- It's a declaration of confidence! Then comes this question, what shall men do unto you? "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Rm.8:31)
And so in sudden emergencies and trials that are sometimes prolonged, God fulfills His promises just the same as He did in youthful days. He's saying, I will not fail thee in old age. When you are in the midst of great stress, just keep courage! I'll not in any wise forsake thee! -- And He means it for you!
Why can't you take it personally? That's the God that we know, that we have proven year after year under all conditions, and He's standing ready at this moment to meet you in any trial that you're passing through. He's speaking to you now! All those who feel that they can go no further unless their loads are lightened or they can feel God's healing touch upon their sick bodies: This is for you.
God if faithful. He has said it: "In thy manifold mercies thou Me not!" (Neh.9:19) -- No matter what your age, no matter what the trouble, you are a peculiar concern of the Lord's at this very moment. You are the one that He's longing to reach.
"Come unto Me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Mt.11:28) -- You are His peculiar care at this moment. Dear Jesus, bless and comfort and answer prayer. Amen.