How to Renew Your Youth

1 Corinthians 14:4a (NKJV)
⁴ He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself…

We have the promise of renewal of youth in Psalm 103:5. The Word tells us that growing old and dying as a result of sickness and disease is a part of the curse. We know that Jesus redeemed us from the curse and paid the price to buy back for man all that was lost in The Fall. Yet today, most in the Church are entering heaven as a result of degeneration (aging) and sickness and disease. To be sure, everyone will grow older and death will ultimately come. But the question is, “Will we age and die God’s way or the world’s way?” The world’s way of aging involves being able to do less and less as the years pass and then for many, finding out they have an incurable disease; spending whatever time is left dealing with medications/treatments that are sometimes worse than the disease itself.

God never wanted that kind of a life for His children. God’s desire is for us to renew our youth so that as we age we get older not old. His desire is for the quality of our lives to continually increase. Deuteronomy 33:25 says, “As your days, so shall your strength be.” God not only shows us His Will – renewal of our youth – He tells us how to achieve it in 1 Corinthians 14:4a: “⁴ He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself… The dictionary definition of edify is “to build up”. Many believers take this scripture in conjunction with Jude 1:20 (NKJV) which says, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,” and automatically equate praying in the Spirit with the building up our spirits. And, that it does.

But praying in our prayer language does much more than that. According to Strong’s Concordance the word for edifies is “oikodomeo”; it means to be a house-builder. In a very true sense our physical body is a house. We are a spirit, we have a soul and we live in a body (house). Our “house” is always in need of attention of some kind. Whether it be from sickness and disease, surgeries, or degeneration due to age, the human house is always in need of upkeep/repair. The Word tells us in I Cor. 14:4a that the way we do that is by praying in our prayer language.

The next time you get a bad report from the doctor, pass another milestone birthday, have surgery, or just feel an ache that you never felt before, take time to pray in your prayer language – let Holy Spirit repair/rebuild your house. Or better yet, take time daily to keep your house in order by praying in your prayer language for renewal of youth. Either way, with God as your divine contractor, you can expect your house to last a lifetime and to provide you with all you need to be satisfied with a long life (Psalm 91) that is well-lived until the time of your homegoing to heaven. 

1 Corinthians 14:4a (MSG)
^4-5 The one who prays using a private “prayer language” certainly gets a lot out of it,