Waiting For The New Year
Monday December 28, 2015
How long are we willing to do our part in the daily ordinary things God has told us to do while we wait for Him to bring about the plans He has for us?
Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem. (Luke 2:36-38 NLT)
What must it have been like for Anna, who for 60+ years waited to see the fulfillment of God's plans regarding the Messiah? Anna was likely in her teens when she married. Luke tells us she was widowed after only 7 years of marriage and then she entered the Temple, probably in her early twenties. From then until she was 84 she had faithfully worshipped God, fasted and prayed, and served at the Temple. Before seeing the child Jesus, Anna had waited expectantly each day for 60+ years doing ordinary daily tasks. She truly was a patient committed believer in the plans of God.
I don't know how long you or I need to wait for the fulfillment of God's promise in our lives. What I know is that God's plans are good and God's timing is perfect. God truly has a plan for each event of our lives. God is in control.
“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth … And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, (Acts 17:24a, 26-28a NKJV)
As we come to the end of this year and move into the next, let's wholeheartedly do those tasks God has given us to do today, and trust Him for the fulfillment of His plan for us, in His determined time.
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