Tales from the Tangled Trail

Tag: asyourdayssoshallyourstrengthbe

  • Your Best Days Are Still Ahead of You (Part 2)

    We live in a world with the most advanced technology humanity has ever known, yet the statistics tell us something sobering. People are lonelier, more anxious, and more depressed than ever before. We are more connected digitally, but more disconnected emotionally and spiritually.

    Yes, modern medicine has made incredible progress. There are medications that help suppress symptoms and stabilize emotions, and thank God for help where it’s needed. But suppression is not the same as freedom. True freedom only comes in one form, and that is found in the name of Jesus.

    Scripture is clear about the authority carried in that name:

    “God exalted him to the place of highest honor
    and gave him the name above all other names,
    that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth”
    (Philippians 2:9–10)

    Everything bows to the name of Jesus. Not just demons, but fear, despair, depression, sickness, and hopelessness. Which means renewing your youth, your strength, and your joy doesn’t start with external fixes. It starts with a decision.

    Choosing Joy Is Not Naive, It’s Powerful

    Quite simply, it starts with deciding to be happy.

    That might sound almost too simple, but happiness is far more intentional than people realize. It’s choosing to guard joy. Choosing to laugh. Choosing to notice the things that lift your spirit instead of constantly rehearsing what drains it.

    And no, this has nothing to do with booking the latest luxury overseas holiday or spending an entire day in the shopping mall buying things you don’t need. Those things may distract you for a moment, but they don’t renew you. Joy is found in small, soul-feeding things. A good laugh. A meaningful conversation. Time with God. Gratitude. Rest.

    A powerful example of this is Norman Cousins.

    In 1964, Cousins, who was already a successful author and professor, was diagnosed with a crippling connective tissue disease. Doctors gave him a one-in-five-hundred chance of survival. Rather than submitting fully to despair, Norman made a bold and unconventional choice. He checked himself into a place where he could watch funny movies and comedy shows for hours each day. He also took high doses of Vitamin C.

    Most importantly, he laughed.

    He later said that ten minutes of genuine laughter gave him two hours of pain-free sleep. Over time, he laughed his way back into health. Against all odds, he recovered.

    That’s Norman’s story.

    But as believers, we actually have an inside edge.

    Philippians 3:1 (TPT) says:
    “Delight yourselves in the Lord! Yes, I am telling you again to rejoice, for joy is your continual safeguard.”

    Joy isn’t optional. It’s protective. It safeguards your heart, your mind, and yes, even your body. And unlike the world’s version of happiness, this joy isn’t dependent on circumstances. It’s rooted in Christ.

    So what can we actually glean from everything we’ve talked about so far?

    First, God never designed strength to decrease simply because days increase. The promise in Deuteronomy is clear: as your days are, so shall your strength be. Weakness, decline, and mental dullness are not automatic outcomes of aging. They are often the result of what we believe, what we agree with, and what we allow to live unchecked in our hearts and minds.

    Second, joy is not a personality trait. It’s a spiritual condition. Scripture repeatedly links joy, a merry heart, and rejoicing to life, health, and renewal. Conversely, bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, and ongoing sorrow dry up the spirit and eventually affect the body. The Bible is remarkably honest about that connection.

    Third, we’ve seen that worldly sorrow ages us. It drains joy, dulls hope, and slowly steals life. Godly sorrow, on the other hand, leads to repentance, freedom, and restoration. One produces death. The other produces life. We don’t get to avoid sorrow entirely, but we do get to choose which kind we live in.

    We also saw through Norman Cousins’ story that joy is not trivial. Laughter, gladness, and hope have measurable effects on the body. If joy could help bring healing even outside of faith, how much more powerful is joy when it is rooted in Christ?

    That brings us to a crucial question:
    If joy renews strength, protects the spirit, and safeguards the heart, then where does that joy actually come from on a daily basis?

    Scripture gives us a very clear answer, and it’s found in a verse many believers know, but often underestimate.

    The scripture is Luke 10:19:

    “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

    First, this verse speaks clearly about the authority given to us as believers. We are not powerless victims, hoping life treats us kindly. We have been given authority to come against things that harm us, including the very forces that wear us down emotionally, mentally, and physically and cause us to age before our time. Fear, oppression, despair, bitterness, and hopelessness are not meant to dominate the believer’s life.

    Second, there’s an important implication here that often gets missed. You don’t trample on snakes and scorpions by standing still. Trampling requires movement. Forward motion. If we quit, stagnate, or settle spiritually, we don’t end up trampling anything. Instead, those same snakes and scorpions eventually make their way to us and start doing the trampling.

    We have to keep moving forward in God.

    And let’s be honest, this might also be the Lord’s subtle way of saying, “Keep walking” – like literally! After all, you can’t trample much from the couch. Walking keeps you moving spiritually and physically, and research backs up what Scripture has been hinting at all along: walking (or exercising) is one of the simplest and most effective ways to stay youthful, strong, and mentally sharp. So, as your days increase, increase the walking. Kingdom living apparently includes cardio.

    The good news is this: the promise that our best days are still ahead of us isn’t wishful thinking or blind optimism. It’s rooted in Scripture, and we now have solid biblical backing to stand on. God has made His intentions clear. Strength is meant to increase with our days, joy is meant to guard our hearts, and renewal is meant to be ongoing. Now the invitation is simple. Believe what God has said, stop agreeing with the lies of decline, and walk it out daily in obedience and humility. Forward motion, grounded faith, and a joyful heart will always lead to life.

  • Your Best Days Are Still Ahead Of You (Part 1)

    I’ve just turned 58, and I’m still trying to process the fact that 60 is no longer a distant concept but something waving at me from the driveway. It doesn’t quite compute. I’ve lived a full, interesting, and occasionally chaotic life, yet inside I still feel like that 18-year-old about to leave school, standing on the edge of everything and wondering what I’m going to be when I grow up. Meanwhile, my body has developed a habit of exaggeration, informing me loudly that my knees should protest every time I sit down or stand up. My mind tries its own version of drama too, suggesting that a misplaced set of keys must mean I’m on the fast track to the family “curse” of dementia. Funny how both my body and my mind seem to have very strong opinions lately. BUT! I’m choosing to believe God’s Word instead, which says my best days are still ahead of me. Most people think I’m nuts for thinking this way, but I’m being deliberately dogmatic about believing what God says, and here’s why…

    As Your Days, So Shall Your Strength Be

    The world and science tells us that weakness, sickness, and decline are just part of getting older. We’re told to expect less strength, less clarity, and less joy as the years go on.

    But Scripture says something very different.

    “As your days, so shall your strength be” (Deut. 33:25).

    That promise doesn’t line up with the world’s thinking, which means something has to change. Not God’s word, but our thinking. Repentance isn’t about turning from bad behavior. It’s about changing the way we believe and speak. If we keep agreeing with the world’s expectation of decline, we’ll never fully step into what God promises.

    Your best days are not behind you. According to God, they’re still ahead.

    Recently, a Japanese Methodist pastor passed away at the age of 105. When the media interviewed people about his long life, they highlighted two things he often said: use olive oil in the morning and take the stairs instead of the elevator.

    That’s good advice. No argument there.

    But what the media didn’t emphasize was this: the man was strong, mentally sharp, and spiritually alive until the very end because he lived by faith and read God’s Word every single day. The world doesn’t want to acknowledge that part. It never does.

    Still, we can learn from both. Yes, olive oil and stairs are wise. But faith, joy, and daily time in God’s Word are the deeper source of life and strength.

    God’s desire is not just spiritual strength, but physical and moral strength too. They’re connected. And here’s something we often overlook: everything the Bible tells us not to do, when we continue doing it, will age us.

    Anger. Bitterness. Unforgiveness. Etcetera…..

    These are not harmless emotions. They are spiritual conditions that people often refuse to bring under self-control. And Scripture is clear about their effect.

    Proverbs 17:22 says,
    “A merry heart does good like a medicine,
    But a broken spirit dries the bones.”

    The Hebrew word translated “medicine” is marpe, which means healing, restoration, and health to the flesh. In other words, joy doesn’t just feel good. It produces life.

    Then the verse continues: a broken spirit dries the bones. You won’t find that phrased quite like that in a medical textbook. But God’s wisdom goes deeper than surface science.

    Proverbs 15:13 says,
    “A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance,
    But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.”

    Put those together and the picture is clear. Sorrow that is held onto, nurtured, and allowed to settle in will break the spirit. And a broken spirit affects the body. It drains strength. It accelerates aging.

    You might say, “But Proverbs is Old Testament.” Fair enough. So let’s confirm this truth under the New Covenant.

    2 Corinthians 7:10 (The Passion Translation) says:
    “For godly sorrow produces repentance that leads to salvation, leaving no regret. But worldly sorrow leads to death.”

    Paul makes an important distinction here. Godly sorrow is the sadness we feel when we realize we’ve been wrong and need correction. That’s not pleasant, but it’s healthy. It leads us back to God, and we never regret that kind of sorrow.

    Worldly sorrow is different. It doesn’t lead to repentance or restoration. It leads to death. Not always physical death right away, but death to joy, to hope, to motivation, and even to the body’s ability to renew itself. It wears people down. It ages them.

    That’s why the enemy works so hard to keep people sad, discouraged, and depressed.

    Look at the man Jesus delivered after crossing the Sea of Galilee. Scripture describes him as crying out, screaming, cutting himself, living among the tombs. He was in constant torment, aware of his condition, overwhelmed by sorrow and pain.

    Does that really look unfamiliar today?

    Many people live in that same internal state now. Different setting, same anguish. The answer then was Jesus. The answer now is still Jesus.

    If we want strength as our days increase, we have to return to the things of the Spirit. God’s Word. God’s joy. God’s way of thinking. There is no substitute.

    And there is no better promise than this: as your days are, so shall your strength be.

    Part 2 will build on how to practically guard joy and renew strength daily.

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