Age Is Just a Number

Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh

Exodus 7:7

I don’t know about you, but I have heard that phrase so many times that it’s impossible to even guess how many times I’ve heard it. What I am certain of, though, is that every time I’ve heard it, it’s been used as a man or a woman’s excuse for marrying someone older or younger than them. No matter how many times this has been used to excuse love, however, the same phrase holds true about how God uses men!

At eighty, it would have been easy to despise the fact that God could use a man like Moses to accomplish such great things, but He did. Similarly, Jeremiah felt he was too young to speak for God. The truth is, God can use anyone regardless of age. He can use children, teenagers, those who are middle-aged, and even the elderly to do His will. Consider the life of a man named George Mueller.

George Mueller lived in England during the 1800s. He was best known for his prayers of faith and the establishment of orphanages. During his lifetime, he built several orphanages and ministered to thousands of children. He also raised the equivalent in today’s terms to millions of dollars, all through prayer. However, there is something else about the life of George Mueller that inspires me. At the age of 70, he retired from being the pastor of his church, but he did not retire from serving God. Even at this advanced age, he felt the call to become a missionary and to travel the world, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. During the remaining years of his life, he travelled thousands of miles and preached in 42 countries, including India, China, and Japan. Don’t forget, this was back in the 1800s when travel wasn’t as easy as it is today.

There are several things about George Mueller that stand out as reasons why God could use him in such an amazing way: his complete surrender to God, selflessness, constant prayer, and unwavering faith in God’s power to answer prayers. 

If you embrace these spiritual characteristics, like those found in Muller and many other ancestors of faith throughout history, God can choose and use you too. 

PRAYER