Luke 2:36-38
Old age can be a wonderful blessing but for many it is seen
to be a terrible curse. Anna was an
elderly woman who did not allow her age or the hardships of her life to take
her away from the service of the Lord or make her bitter. On the day that Mary and Joseph entered the
temple to present Jesus and offer their sacrifice they had a special encounter
with Simeon followed by another divinely appointed meeting with Anna. These things are not coincidental and were clearly
designed and planned by God in order to prepare the way for Messiah. We can learn many things from the example of
this faithful elderly saint. There are
at least three characteristics that describe Anna; all of which are worthy of
imitation.
A FAITHFUL SENIOR: All of us have hopes and dreams for our
lives and there is nothing wrong with that.
The problem is when we become so desirous of something that we use not
having it as an excuse to sin. I am sure
that when Anna got married she had many hopes and dreams about a long marriage
and a family that she had imagined from the time that she was a little
girl. Instead, her husband died after
only seven years of marriage and remained a widow all the way to this day when
she was eighty four. She didn’t become
bitter or angry at God; instead she spent all of her time in the temple. Year after year, decade after decade she
faithfully walked before the Lord. Too
often we allow adversity in our lives to create resentment and disappointment
towards God. Many elderly people use
their age as an excuse for laziness and inactivity. Certainly age afflicts us with physical
limitations but we must be faithful to continue to do as much as we can for as
long as we can. Age can provide a great
amount of wisdom that allows us to be even more effective for the glory of God
than we were at the height of our physical strength. There is no retirement from our walk with God
or our work for God. There can be no
circumstance in life that causes us to turn our back on God. Our hopes and dreams must always be submissive
to His sovereign will and be adapted accordingly for as long as God allows us
to live.
A GRATEFUL SERVANT: Anna dedicated her entire life as a
widow to serving the Lord in the temple.
Night and day she was in prayer at the temple and was fasting before the
Lord. We have a tendency to measure
productivity by the physical work that we do and we give very little value to
the importance of prayer. This is a
grave mistake. More has been
accomplished through the power of prayer than we could ever imagine. I am certain when we get to heaven there will
be great rewards distributed to believers who were faithful to serve the Lord
in prayer. Pastors, missionaries,
authors and evangelists are the people who we typically imagine to be the most
productive people for the kingdom. I
think that we will be surprised to find out that there are many frail, elderly,
unknown servants of God that accomplished immeasurably more through prayer than
the ministers that we think are on the “front lines.” She was in the temple all the time but God
allowed her to be in the right part of the temple to be able to hear what
Simeon said about Jesus and Messiah. Her
heart was filled with gratitude over the Good News that she had just witnessed. God is pleased when we are grateful to Him
for His past blessings as well as His future promises. It would have been very easy for Anna to have
spent her life complaining about the loss of her husband and to use her old age
as an excuse to simply sit around doing nothing. Instead, she loved God with all of her heart,
prayed and fasted before Him because of her faith in the Lord and the
conviction that He was in control of the circumstances of her life.
A HOPEFUL SPEAKER: Anna spent a lot of time talking to God
about people in prayer, but she also was faithful to talk to people about God. Her life was full of hope for the redemption
of her people. She believed in the
promises of Scripture and lived in light of those promises by reminding others
about those promises. Once she learned
that Jesus was the Messiah she was thrilled and grateful but there was no way
that she was about to keep that Good News to herself. She had to tell others about what she knew
and about who Jesus was. Elderly people
and young people, for that matter, have a tendency to talk about their aches
and pains or reminisce about the “good old days.” God does not want us to complain and gripe
about the things that we don’t have or sit around lamenting about the things, people
or skills that we have lost. He wants
our hearts to be filled with the hope of His promises so that our mouths will
be full of praise and joy as we talk about all that He has done and what He has
still promised to do. The rapture, the
judgment seat of Christ, the kingdom of Christ, the new heavens and the new
earth ought to be the frequent subjects of our conversation. One day we will live in the presence of God
with perfect bodies, renewed minds, redeemed souls and we will know and be able
to worship God in perfection for all of eternity. The cities and kingdoms that will be on the
new earth would boggle our minds if we could see them now. These promises of God should dazzle our
imaginations and these hopes should be the content of our conversations.
APPLICATION: Trust that God is in control of our current
circumstances no matter what our age, marital status or physical health. Use our time to pray to the Lord and set
aside seasons of fasting in order to pray for the advancement of the kingdom of
God. Talk to others about the hope of
the Gospel and the glories that God is preparing for us in heaven.
Comments
Post a Comment