Over the last 10 years or so I have met several people who had very irrational fears of dying "young." When I asked them what they felt was "young," they said they did not expect to live past an age range of 40-55 years of age. They did not expect to live up to an age range of 70-90 years.

When I asked them why they felt this way - the answer I always got was because one of their parents had died young - usually in their 40's or 50's. I guess they thought there was some kind of curse on them - and what happened to one of their parents was going to eventually happen to them.

What does the Bible have to say about God wanting us to live long lives? For those of you who are not aware of these verses from Scripture - I think you will be pleasantly surprised to find that God does want some of His people living long lives down here on earth - and that this is a particular blessing that He can grant to us if we are willing to meet certain conditions under the New Covenant that we now have with Jesus.

I think the two main reasons God would like a lot of His people to have these long lives is so that they can complete whatever mission, purpose or call that God has set on their lives and also for them to be able to enjoy the fruit of all of their efforts before they go home to be with Him.

I think the greatest example of this would be in our marriages. I think God wants to give us the ability to grow old so we can watch all of our children grow up, then watch them get married and have their own children making you grandparents. You have put forth a tremendous amount of time, effort and energy raising your children to be good, God-fearing and law abiding adults. Now God wants you to be able to sit back, relax and watch your children fruit out as the men and women that He wants them to be in Him.

You have the rest of eternity to spend with God on the other side - but you only have one chance down here on this earth to watch your children physically grow up right before your very eyes. Once we all enter into heaven - we will all be "set" at a certain age. Never again will you be able to see your son or daughter grow up physically, emotionally and spiritually right before your very eyes. You only get once chance down here on this earth to see this event occur and I think God would like to give more of His people this long life blessing so they can see all of this take place in their lifetime.