We'll turn, if you would, to Luke chapter 2.
We'll be in Luke chapter 2. I'm sure that's not a surprise.
It is Christmas. There are other options that we
could be in at Christmas, but Luke 2 is the is the go to.
I guess we'll we'll be at verse 36 is where we'll be when we get
there. The traditional events of the
Christmas story are are well known to all Christians, right?
The birth of Jesus includes 3 wise men bearing gifts.
There were shepherds out in the fields in the in the middle of
the winter and and a baby was born in a stable and there was
no room in the inn. These aspects of the accounts
are firmly fixed in in our popular mind and culture, but
there are a couple characters and moments that tend to escape
people's minds and thoughts when they think of the Christmas
story. I'm going to go out on a limb
and guess that if I asked you who Anna was, you would probably
have no idea. This morning.
We're going to learn what we can from this woman who only appears
in three verses of Scripture. So, but in order to help us
understand our timeline here, I want to take a few minutes to
summarize Luke chapter 2 verses one through 35.
This is just kind of a a fly over of what we see in those
verses and and help give us a little clarity as we approach
this moment where today's passage is.
As chapter 2 commences, we embark on the actual birth
narrative of our Savior. Caesar Augustus had issued A
decree that everyone should go to their hometown in order to be
counted. So Mary and Joseph had to make
the trip from Nazareth, which was way up in the north near the
Sea of Galilee, all the way to the city of David, Bethlehem
down in the South, a trip of nearly 100 miles.
And this was, of course, while Mary was very pregnant.
Now, presumably many other people had returned to Bethlehem
at the same time and for the same reason, so there was no
room for them to stay in what the most texts refer to as the
inn. However, the traditional word
for an inn isn't actually used here.
It's a different word. Instead, Luke used the word
cataluma, which actually refers to a room or or a guest room.
It's possible they were, they were trying to stay with family,
but there wasn't room in the guest room and the stable was
attached to the guest room and, and there was, there were, there
were windows likely going from the stable into the guest room,
kind of like the takeout counter.
When you, when you go up to the takeout counter, there's a
window and, and it separates the kitchen space from, from the
public space, right? That's kind of how it would be
there in a Jewish Home there in the 1st century.
The, the stable would be attached to the home and there
would be windows and under the windows there would be mangers,
the feeding troughs. So that's the animals, whatever
they were, could poke their heads through the window.
I imagine it kind of like Mr. Ed, sorry to digress there for a
second, but poking their head through the window and they
could eat the hay or whatever was set there underneath the
window. So Jesus was born.
He was, He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and he was
laid there in a Manger under the window.
Soon after Jesus was born, a single Angel appeared to the
shepherds who were out in the fields.
They were watching over their sheep.
This Angel told them that he had a message that was good news of
great joy. We heard about that this morning
with the Advent passage. He had a good message of great
joy for all people because the Savior was born in the city of
David and, and they could find him wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a Manger. And the shepherds who were who
are now at this moment witnesses to thousands of angels, no
longer just one, now thousands. They went and found the baby
just as the Angel had said, and they rejoiced that they were
able to witness this miraculous event.
And then the law calls for circumcising boys on the 8th
day. So Jesus was circumcised on the
8th day and there would normally be a ceremony around this and
that's when a Hebrew child would would receive his or or her
name. Girls would go through another
process, obviously not circumcision, but they would
have a celebration also a ceremony also on the 8th day and
they would receive their name. So on the 8th day the baby
received the name Yeshua just as the Angel had instructed.
Why the name Yeshua? Remember in in Hebrew culture it
was common for people to give their babies names that meant
something. They were they were significant.
Yeshua in Hebrew, Jesus or Joshua in English.
These names mean Yahweh saves or the Lord is our salvation.
So that was on the 8th day, but then 40 days after Jesus is
born, he's presented at the temple.
It's important to say that all these keeping of customs, these
aren't just useless details. To me they signify the depth of
Joseph and Mary's faith. They were diligent to keep the
law. They had Jesus circumcised at
the right time. They gave him the right name.
They went to the temple 40 days after Jesus birth so that Mary
could be purified. You see, the law required 7 days
of impurity after the birth of a boy and then another 33 days on
top of that before the mother could be declared ritually pure.
And the piety of this young couple is evidence all through
the whole Christmas narrative. Now as they brought Jesus up to
the temple, they they met an older man there named Simeon,
another minor character in the story.
But he was full of the Spirit, and God revealed to him that he
wouldn't die until he saw the Lord's Messiah or the Anointed
of the Lord. That is the 1 specifically
called to bring redemption to God's people.
Now when this old man saw the baby Jesus, he instantly knew he
was seeing the Messiah, and he proceeded to prophecy over him,
since the Holy Spirit had to reveal to him that the Messiah
this baby would be for both Jews and Gentiles is what Simeon
says. So that brings us up to today's
passage, Luke 2, verses 36 through 38.
So if you're able, would you stand as we read from this
passage beginning at verse 36? And there was a prophetess,
Anna, the daughter Ephanuel of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband
seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow
until she was 84. She did not depart from the
Temple, worshipping with fasting and prayer night and day, and
coming up at the that very hour she began to give thanks to God
and to speak of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption
of Jerusalem. You may be seated.
So Anna is there also at the temple on this occasion when
when Simeon has just seen this baby Jesus that at 40 days old
has been presented at the temple, as is customary, Anna's
there also. So let's see what we can learn
about her. So as we look at Anna's
identity, verses 36 and 37 read, there was a prophetess, Anna,
the daughter of Fanwell of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years, and having lived with her husband
seven years from when she was a virgin and then as a widow until
she was 84. Luke is remarkably specific
here. But that's what we expect of a
doctor and historian, right? He's detailed.
So this this means you, you can't write this off.
You can't just sweep these details under the rug.
He's calling these out things out for a reason.
He's referring to a specific person from a specific place and
time. Her father's name is Fanwell,
and she's from the tribe of Asher way up north on the
Mediterranean. Not only do we know where she's
from, we also know that she was married seven years before her
husband died. And now here she is, many years
removed from the days of her youth at the spry young age of
84. In this passage it almost acts
like an aside in Jesus life. It's an honorable mention on the
way from Jesus being presented at the temple at 40 days old to
suddenly Luke jumps from Jesus being 40 days old to suddenly
Jesus is 12 years old when when he goes up to the temple.
Now Anna's story encourages us to take notice of those who
might be overlooked living at the margins of life.
As we've been talking about in this series.
She's a widow. She seems to have no children
around, but God knows her. Her name is called out
specifically. He knows her.
Her father's name is known. Her tribe is known.
God knows when she was married, how long she was married, and
how long she has been alone. He knows that she has been
faithful, staying close to the temple, worshipping, fasting,
and praying over what we could reasonably speculate were long,
lonely years without significant means of income.
Anna has been faithful to God and God has been faithful to
her, knowing her personally and entrusting her to be one of the
first witnesses to proclaim his redemption.
How awesome is that? So I Anna's identity is very
real and specific. Next we'll look at her gifting.
She was a prophetess, the female form of a prophet.
A prophet was a simply a spokesperson who proclaims God's
word and speaks for him. A prophet or prophetess would
proclaim God's word and speak for him.
This person's job was simply to to speak God's words.
They were the messenger, if you will, whether or not their
message was in vogue with their audience.
And often the audience did not want to hear the message that
the prophets would bring. Their message had two basic
components, forth telling and foretelling.
Forth telling is speaking something forth.
This is the bulk of what the prophets did they they spoke
forth the words of God, proclaiming truth and calling
for righteousness. Speaking forth, then the other
part of their message in which people often assume is what they
actually did. This isn't really the bulk of
what they did was foretelling. Foretelling is telling events of
the future events, whether they were events of judgement or
events of salvation. They were sometimes thought to
know the future. And here in this moment, Anna is
is forth, telling. She's declaring who this baby is
and this declaration of who this baby is has significant
ramifications for the future. So the Anna's only one of only a
handful of prophetesses who are who are recorded in Scripture.
There's Miriam, that's Aaron and Moses, sister, the judge
Deborah. And then when King Josiah found
a copy of the law in the temple, he was he was troubled over his
nation's obedience. And so he consulted the
prophetess Holda to understand what would happen.
She told him that that Judah would be judged for its
idolatry. But King Josiah himself, he
would be spared because of his humility and his tender heart
before God. Then, Isaiah's wife was also a
prophetess. And that is the entire list of
prophetesses who are called out by name in Scripture.
There there aren't many of them, and when you consider how many
male prophets there were, the female numbers pale in
comparison. However, it's important to
remind ourselves of the context in which these things happen.
Remember, God is meeting his people where they are in a
particular context, cultural context.
It's easy for us to sit here today and and judge them, but
when we consider the context and and the culture around them,
what God does stands in stark contrast to the culture in their
day and age. The words and testimony of women
were discounted and considered unreliable.
They couldn't even testify in court and they were considered
second class citizens. Yet, God chose to utilize women
to help communicate His message and bring redemption to
humanity. Gabriel's first words to to Mary
were You are highly favored, that is, you are highly graced.
Then when Jesus is 40 days old, here on this occasion God
revealed Jesus identity to this widow Anna.
When Jesus began teaching, women flocked to hear him.
When he encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, He
engaged her and granted her this woman who was so looked down
upon because of the numerous husbands she had had.
He granted her salvation. And then the woman who's caught
in adultery, when she's brought to him by the Pharisees, Jesus
gives her grace and truth. Women were the first ones to
discover that Jesus was no longer in the tomb.
So the transforming power of Jesus had given women the
courage and boldness to openly follow him.
And it all began with a teenage mom named Mary.
And it carried through to this widow, Anna.
She got the pleasure of announcing the Messiah to
everyone that she met. So now let's look at Anna's
calling. You might say, well, you, you
just said she was a prophetess. Isn't that her calling?
No, that's actually her gifting. She was a prophet, but what is
it that Anna was called to? What was her vocation?
What was she doing? How was she spending her time?
Well, verse 37, B told us that she didn't depart from the
temple. She was worshipping with fasting
and prayer night and day. So night and day, Anna was
committed to worshipping God at the temple.
She was committed to worshipping God at the temple.
Obviously she wasn't there 24/7, she she couldn't be, but she was
practically always there. She would regularly find herself
in the court of women offering prayers alongside the other
younger women. Worship wasn't part of her life,
it was her life. And how is it that Anna
worshipped? She worshipped, the text says,
through fasting and prayer. She would observe the major fast
days like Yom Kippur, the the Day of Atonement, as well as
other fast days that were implemented when when the Exiles
had returned back to Israel from the promised back to the
Promised land, from the Babylonian exile.
It's possible she might have even done some of the same
things that Pharisees did and fasted twice a week.
We don't know. The text doesn't tell us
explicitly what her habit was, but it makes it very clear that
fasting was very much part of her life.
And we can also deduce that she was at the temple for each of
the daily prayer times, morning, noon and night.
She was fully devoted in her calling and following Yahweh.
Now it seems to me that when the text calls out her age of being
84, that indicates a a long and single minded devotion to God.
If she'd been a widow in her 20s and regularly attending the
temple, that is of course one thing.
She she was young at one point and could easily worship in that
capacity, right? But here she is some 60 years
later, still attending the temple.
Her devotion to God most certainly could not be called
into question as she had spent 60 years regularly going to the
temple. And then verse 38, we find her
response says coming up at the very hour she began to give
thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for
the redemption of Jerusalem. So Anna's first response was
thankfulness. She recognized the baby Jesus as
the Messiah and she was grateful.
Now it's amazing to me that that a woman presumably near the end
of her life, like she doesn't have too much time left, right,
especially in their time, 84 years of age was was quite old.
So she's near the end of her life and and this baby isn't
going to make a significant impact in her life.
It's logical to assume that that Anna has passed long before
Jesus even shows up to the temple at 12 years of age.
Anna has probably passed long before that moment, so he's not
going to make a significant impact, change her life, her
conditions or anything. But yet she's grateful, her
heart rejoiced for the salvation that would come to her neighbors
and and she would be able to live and die with the knowledge
knowing she also had seen the Messiah.
And the next thing she did, she proclaimed redemption.
She proclaimed redemption had come.
I imagine her telling every passerby at the temple, everyone
that she met on on her walk home or on her way to the temple each
day, Hey, I met the Messiah, the one who is going to redeem us
from this tyranny. Someday we're going to be free
from Rome. This 84 year old woman comes up
to you and starts proclaiming freedom from Rome.
Are you going to believe her? You're probably going to
question her, right? Sorry lady.
I, I think you're kind of losing it or something.
You have to imagine people thought she was crazy.
Now it's possible that Anna's perspective was more of the
socio political sorts rather than the soteriological sort.
That is, the sort Speaking of God's grace coming into our
lives. But she knew that this was
something important. She knew that this was the one
that Isaiah and the prophets had spoken of.
When the gospel has gripped you, you can't help but speak it out
and share it. You can't help but tell others
the good news. And that's what Anna did.
She proclaimed redemption to everyone that she would see.
So this is Anna's life and there are some things that we can
learn from her. There are three specific lessons
that we can take away from Anna's life.
The 1st is she had an unwavering faith.
She had an unwavering faith. Pardon me for a moment while I
grab something I forgot. I have an illustration and I
forgot to grab a Bible. This is not a Bible, but it will
work. Anna's faith was firmly
grounded. Under no circumstances would she
be. Would she be swayed from the
truth. She wasn't going to follow any
other route. She was firmly committed to
following Yahweh. Psalm one, one through 3 tells
us of this type of person. Blessed is the man who walks not
in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of
sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in
the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
He's like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its
fruits in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and all
that he does he prospers. Anna was grounded in God's Word
like a tree planted by streams of water.
The tree planted by the stream always has access to water,
right? The rest of the land around
could be barren, but the tree that's planted by the water can
grow. Her roots were deep to soak up
the nutrients of the Word, and there was fruit in her life.
So how do we actualize this in our lives?
There's an illustration that the the Navigators came out a number
of years ago and it's called the hand illustration.
In order to have a solid grasp on your Bible, you need 5
aspects. The pinky is for hearing show up
each week to our services. Not once a month or even twice a
month. Now, regular attendance is
considered roughly twice a month.
Back in the day, we were there every every single week.
We were there on Sunday night. We were there on Wednesday
night. How many of you have lived that
right? I know.
I know a bunch. You did right.
OK. Yeah.
Show up every week. Of course you're going to miss.
Yeah, we get that. Show up every week to be
faithful to hear the word of God.
Next is reading. That's the ring finger reading
the word. Generally speaking, we retain
15% of what we read. Reading is the foundation of our
quiet time with God, right? This isn't just reading a
chapter in the Bible, maybe a couple times a week or or
something like that, or reading a devotional.
This involves actually reading the word and processing it.
Read it, understand it, digest it.
This leads us to the middle finger.
Now you can see why I have three fingers up.
This leads us to the middle finger.
So the middle finger is studying.
Study the word. Studying takes time.
This isn't just 5 minutes. Sure, studying doesn't have to
be an hour, but studying takes investing time into it.
It asks a little bit more of us than just simply reading the
word. Then after that, the fourth
finger, your index finger, is memorizing.
When you memorize the word, this puts the word in you.
It is stored up in your mind, in your heart.
So then in a moment of temptation or or difficulty
trial, whatever the case may be, you're able to recall Scripture
as the Holy Spirit brings that to your remembrance.
And lastly, the thumb is meditating, meditating.
So we meditate on the word, we dwell on it, zinc on it
continually. And the word is like a cow
chewing its cud, which is thoroughly gross, but it's
continually bringing that word back up.
Bring the word back up and meditate and think on that.
So when we have hearing, reading, studying, memorizing,
and meditating, then that gives us a firm hold, a firm grasp on
the Word of God. With all 5 tools, we're able to
move just from simply surface level engagement with the Word
to to letting the Word of Christ richly dwell in you.
As it says in Colossians, the Word starts to become part of
you, to infiltrate every fiber of your being.
So hear it, read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it in
order to strengthen your grasp on Scripture.
And some people will ask, well, how many days a week do I need
to do this? Do I do this five days a week?
Like it's a job? Do I do it six days a week?
And, and I, I take a day off a, a Sabbath day off or do I do it
every day? Well, I will tell you to do it
every day, but here, here, here's here's the caveat, if you
will. I don't want to encourage you
down downplaying your time, but remember, if you want to develop
your relationship with your spouse, you don't skip days of
communicating, right? And when you don't communicate
for long periods of time, then your relationship with your
spouse starts to suffer. It's the same way with our
relationship with God. Now four days.
There's this thing called the power of 4 four days is is the
mark. It's the point at which somebody
is able to really experience significant growth in their
spiritual life. The Center for Bible Engagement
surveyed more than 100,000 people around the world and they
found that at day four, if people were regularly in the
Word 4 four days a week, then that was the greatest indicator
of their spiritual growth and health.
So at a minimum, spend time in the Word at least four days a
week. But I would encourage you every
single day, make that a habit cannot go a day without being in
the Word. And when you do that, you will
see significant radical changes in your life.
It can be tempting to let time go by without being in the Word,
and before you know it, perhaps you're looking at days, weeks,
even months without being in God's Word.
But one of the best ways to consistently spend time in God's
Word is to find a Bible reading plan that you enjoy.
I'm a huge advocate for reading through the Bible in a year, and
there are a lot of Bible reading plans on EU Version app that I'm
sure probably most of you have downloaded on your phone.
Did you know all it takes is 15 to 20 minutes a day to read
through the Bible in a year? 15 to 20 minutes.
I'm in the 20 range. I read slower, but all it takes
is 15 to 20 minutes a day to read through the entire Bible in
a year. But often people get stuck when
they're reading. Either they're not necessarily
processing what they're reading or or they start at Page 1 and
they end up in Leviticus and they start to tune out.
And I understand it could be difficult to navigate some of
those pages. But that's why I love a couple
of abidable reading plans that I have listed on the notes sheet
because they help you process what you're reading and see the
significance in those pages and in those details.
Couple of the Bible reading plans I have written down there,
There is one story that leads to Jesus, which is by Tim Mackey
and the Bible project. One story that leads to Jesus
actually involves a number of, if you know the Bible Project,
they have videos for every single book of the Bible that
are just absolutely well done. So you'll have videos like that
to watch. You might have blog posts that
they've written to read that relate to that day's reading and
help help you gain clarity of that reading.
Actually, that plan, one story that leads to Jesus actually in
the Old Testament follows the Hebrew order of Scripture rather
than our order that you find in our Bibles.
It actually follows the Hebrew order of the Scriptures.
So it's interesting to read it in that context and understand
how Hebrew people would have related to the word.
And then the other Bible reading plan I have listed is the Bible
Recap by Tara Lee Kabul. This is an excellent resource.
It involves listening to a daily podcast 6789 minutes in length
about your Bible reading plan. And if you want, you can, she
has lots of resources that you can journal.
You can fill out a study guide for each day's reading, an
excellent, excellent resource there as well.
And she utilizes A chronological plan is what she does.
Now's the time to start thinking about these things, right?
Today's the 14th, so the first is like tomorrow, like he's
going to be here so fast, but start thinking about that now.
What does God want for you in this next year?
How can you become further grounded in the faith?
I make it a habit personally each year to go go through the
entire scripture each year. Like I said, it's it's not a
hard thing to do. You just have to be persistent.
Make it a daily habit. But think about that now and see
what God would have for you in this coming year, how He wants
you to grow yourself in your faith this coming year.
And then Anna's faith was unwavering, but it wasn't just
unwavering that that faith, that that depth of faith gave her a
boldness in sharing the gospel. She didn't know she was sharing
the gospel. Maybe she did, I don't know.
She didn't know who it was the gospel.
Maybe I don't know that word specifically, but the shepherds
knew they had. They had been told this is good
news. That is gospel.
So she had boldness in sharing the gospel.
I suspect that more than a few people looked at her and
thought, this lady's crazy. She doesn't know what she's
talking about. This is clearly not the Messiah.
This is a brand new weeks old baby, right?
Nonetheless, she wasn't deterred in sharing the truth that had
been revealed to her by the Holy Spirit.
Now the other day I read an article that said most of the
people around us, they aren't hostile to Jesus.
In the church, we tend to think that that it's an US versus them
kind of situation, right? But that is not the case.
They just haven't really given much thought to Jesus or the
church. And and without a significant
crisis in their life, they're not necessarily going to
suddenly insert Jesus and the church into their very busy and
full schedules. But this article said that all
it takes just engaging them grow that relationship that that that
acquaintance turn them into an actual friend, start on this
path of this journey of engaging with them and having spiritual
conversations with them. An article said that it may take
some time. It's a journey.
It's not a one time, Hey, let's meet for coffee and get you
saved kind of thing. That's that's not how it works
in these situations. But that as you talk about these
things, it may be slow, but they'll get there.
And when they get there, they will reorient their lives around
Jesus Christ. They begin to understand the
need to have him in their life. A very simple step.
This time of year, as I mentioned in the announcements,
it's Christmas Eve. People plan to be in God's
house. People who are never in God's
house, I will say 50 Sundays out of the year, they find
themselves in God's house twice a year, Christmas Eve and
Easter. We call them, of course,
creasters. Was that new for some of you?
So invite people for Christmas Eve.
Let's pack out this place so that they can hear the gospel.
So we've seen Anna's unwavering faith.
We've seen her boldness in in sharing the gospel.
And that brings us to the final point, thankfulness.
I love Anna's spirit of gratitude in this moment.
She could have easily missed this.
Think just thinking to herself, oh there's someone else who's
who's come to the temple to make the necessary sacrifices for for
purification. Think about this moment is when
the baby is 40 years old being presented at the temple so so
that Mary can be purified. This happens all the time.
She's seen this happen so many times in her 84 years of life,
but this time she has the eyes to see this one's different.
This is not like all those other hundreds of times that she'd
seen. This was a normal, common
occurrence, but God moved in her for her to be able to see what
was happening right in front of her.
This posture in our lives is so important.
Though it's not officially listed as a fruit of the Spirit,
it's an important character quality for the Christian to
portray gratefulness. Scripture, of course, repeatedly
calls God's followers to give thanks to Him.
And when I think of the problems associated though with with a
lack of thankfulness, my mind goes to a most peculiar place.
Romans chapter 1. If you know Romans one, your
leg, hold up, where are we going?
This just went sideways, but hang with me for a moment.
Romans chapter 1, verses 20 through 22, you'll find there on
the screen reads For his invisible attributes, namely his
eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever
since the creation of the world in the things that have been
made. So they are without excuse.
And that is to say that people don't have an excuse for not
wanting to know God because he has revealed himself to them.
So then the next slide says, for although they knew God, they did
not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but instead they
became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were
darkened, claiming to be wise. They became fools.
This foolish thinking caused them to think they were so smart
and wise and had everything figured out.
Have you seen media lately? Have you seen the Tik Toks, the
Instagrams, the Reels, all the things?
I think we're seeing that today. People think they have
everything figured out when in reality their hearts have been
darkened. So God gave them up to the lusts
of their hearts, their dishonorable passions and
corrupted thinking that open the door for them to do all sorts of
vile things that should not be done.
All manner of behaviour is on the table with this type of
life. And where did the downward
spiral begin? It all started because they
didn't give thanks to God. They failed to acknowledge God
and give thanks to Him. The beginning of corruption
begins with a lack of gratitude. It was an inability to see the
blessings that were in front of them, to see the person, God,
who had revealed himself to them.
He was the source of it all. Anna recognized that God was
moving. In this seemingly mundane
moment. She'd been diligent to place
herself in the path of hearing from God so when he moved, she
could see it. She she took note of it.
She gave thanks for it, and she didn't let fear hold her back
from proclaiming that God's salvation had come to His
people. That's Anna.
You may not feel like Anna, though.
You might feel overlooked, devalued, or even marginalized.
But God calls each and every one of us to remain faithful to Him,
even when it feels pointless, like we're unseen and nobody
cares. And that's where He'll meet us
and where we will see Him work. His love and redemption are for
all. No matter how far away from Him
you might be or or how marginalized you might feel at
the moment, you have value. God loves you, has a purpose and
calling for you, and He wants to use you.
Let's bow our heads and close our eyes.
Father God, we thank you for including three verses, 3 verses
in scripture. Otherwise we wouldn't know who
Anna was and she has much to teach us.
So we thank you for including her story, her her interaction
with with the baby Jesus. Thank you for her example of
unwavering faith. She was rooted and grounded in
her faith, which enabled her to see who Jesus was, that he was
the Messiah, the one to bring redemption to the people.
Thank you for her boldness and sharing the gospel.
May we have that boldness as well.
And we're grateful for the thankfulness that she displayed.
This moment might not have significantly altered her life,
but she knew that it would change history and she was
thankful. So God, may we live like Anna,
with unwavering faith, boldness and sharing and with grateful
hearts. It's in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.