One of my favorite parts of Luke chapter 2 is actually after the Christmas story. Beginning in verse 25 we read about 2 people, Simeon and Anna. They watched prophecy being fulfilled right before their eyes. Their prayers were being answered. Not a prayer they prayed for a day or even a week or a month but a prayer prayed for decades!!! A lifetime prayer! A prayer of faith and hope! A prayer built on a promise. Here is the text:

“As they came to the temple to fulfill this requirement, an elderly man was there waiting—a resident of Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. He was a very good man, a lover of God who kept himself pure, and the Spirit of holiness rested upon him. Simeon believed in the imminent appearance of the one called “The Refreshing of Israel. ”For the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not see death before he saw the Messiah, the Anointed One of God. Keeping his promise, the Holy Spirit led Simeon to be in the temple court at the very moment Jesus’ parents entered to fulfill the requirement of the sacrifice.

Simeon cradled the baby in his arms and praised God and prophesied: “Lord and Master, I am your loving servant, and now I can die content, for you have fulfilled your promise to me. With my own eyes I have seen your Word,  the Savior you sent into the world. He will be glory for your people Israel, and the Revelation-Light for all people everywhere!”

Mary and Joseph stood there, awestruck over what was being said about their baby.

A prophetess named Anna was also in the temple court that day. She was from the tribe of Asher and the daughter of Phanuel. Anna was an aged widow who had been married only seven years before her husband passed away. After he died she chose to worship God in the temple continually. For the past eighty-four years she had been serving God with night-and-day prayer and fasting. While Simeon was prophesying over Mary and Joseph and the baby, Anna walked up to them and burst forth with a great chorus of praise to God for the child. From that day forward she told everyone in Jerusalem who was waiting for their redemption that the anticipated Messiah had come!”

I can’t even begin to imagine what Simeon felt when they placed the baby Jesus in his arms. He was holding the Savior. The promise. He was promised he would not die until he saw Jesus and now after years and years of believing, Simeon was holding Jesus in his arms! Can you even imagine?!

Anna dedicated her entire life to prayer and fasting for the Messiah to come. A young widow not even 30 years old dedicated her life to praying for this one thing. It took a lifetime for her to see it come to pass. But it did. The Messiah had come. She witnessed it with her own eyes!

I pray this Christmas you receive Him by faith with the same joy that Simeon and Anna felt that day! If you have been feeling hopeless, Jesus has come. If you are feeling alone, Jesus has come. If you are feeling anxious, He has come. For those where this season is difficult and even unbearable, the Lord says, keep believing.  Cast your cares on Him. Even if the waiting seems long, keep praying, keep believing that what the Lord promised you will be fulfilled! 

For God so loved the world (that includes you), that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. God did not send Him, Jesus, to condemn the world but through Him you would have hope. You would have salvation. Receive it today and keep believing. 

Merry Christmas.