Bible Passage: “She did not leave the temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayers.” (Luke 2:37b CSB)
Scripture Reading: Luke 2:36-38
If there was one single thing you could dedicate your life to for over eight decades, what would it be?
In Luke 2:36-38, we are introduced to a remarkable woman named Anna. She is one of only a handful of women in the Bible given the title “prophetess.” When she was a younger woman, Anna was only married for seven years before becoming a widow. You can imagine the struggles she could have experienced at that stage of her life, and maybe even the desire to get married again.
Instead, Anna remained a widow and devoted her life to one thing: worshiping God in the Temple, fasting, and praying. She dedicated her entire life to God. Depending on your Bible translation, she did this either for 84 years or was 84 years old at the time of this part of the Christmas story. Either way, the purpose of her entire life became serving God.
One day, a young baby is brought to the Temple, but this is no ordinary baby. Anna realizes this is the promised Messiah. Imagine living with such purpose in serving God for so many decades, but nothing to show for it, and then seeing the Messiah!
Anna continues serving God, but this time she does so by thanking Him and telling those who were waiting that the Messiah has arrived.
Anna also had confidence that God would keep His promises, and that confidence led her to live with one purpose for virtually her entire life: to serve God.
What a man hopes for will guide what he gives his life to. If you are hoping for more money or a better relationship with someone, you will invest your life in pursuing those things. The limitation is that all those hopes will eventually pass away, either because you achieve them or because you realize they will never happen.
You can find a purpose that will carry you through every season and stage of life. You can find a purpose that matters for eternity. That purpose can only be found by making sure your hope is in Jesus, born in Bethlehem as the hope of the world.
Prayer: Father, help my hope to be in something eternal rather than temporary. Fill my heart with Your hope and shape my purpose in life through that hope. Amen.
Reflection: How does what you hope in shape the purpose you are living for?
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