Anna was an old woman.  Married for only seven years, what would her life become after her husband's death?  Luke tells us that she did not marry again or carry on a trade: she was on a unique mission.  She committed herself to a lifestyle of worship, fasting and prayer.  But this was not quiet minded pietism; it was all in preparation for the one big event of her life.  She was a woman God could trust to recognise and announce the Truth.  She did not know when that moment would come; but when it came, she knew it was time to step forward to meet God’s Messiah.

We do not know how God sustained her through decades of lonely vigil or how her mission started.  But we do know that at age 84, well past the normal expected lifespan for those times, she was still ready to do her job.  In Jewish law, two witnesses were required to establish truth (John 8:17).  On that day, first Simeon (Luke 2:25-35) and then Anna appeared as God's witnesses to prophesy over the infant as He was presented to the Lord.  Independently, their hearts open to God and their eyes are alert for what He was going to show them.  Then God's Spirit moved them both to be in the right place at the right time; to be witnesses, to testify who this child was.

Anna has been an encouragement to many believers.  She kept faithful to the Lord right to the end, and past the point at which most would have given up.  She did not so much count the years in the past, as the minutes to come.  Anna was always looking for what the Lord would show her (Psalm 119:123).  Rather than reminiscing over her own past glories, she was eager to see the glory of the Lord.  That day she was privileged to announce Jesus as the Redeemer of the world.  It was not her day of glory but the opportunity to proclaim the glory of Jesus the Christ.  She had trusted God to keep His promise to send a Deliverer.  Now she saw the promise fulfilled.  

That kind of persistence comes from a lifetime of worship saturated in God’s Word, committed to prayer, and sustained by periods of fasting.  It was to be the same lifestyle for Jesus and became the pattern for the apostles.  The business of heaven is too big to be cluttered by the trivial diversions of the world.  This does not mean that every believer should live in solitary contemplation, but rather that the focus of every day must be the hope of the appearance of Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).  Whatever our responsibilities, we either seek our own advancement and glory, or the advancement of Christ's kingdom and His glory.  It is not a matter of religious activity, but a wholehearted commitment to put Jesus first in everything.  It starts again today.  So, pray where you are and ask the Lord to give you a heart like Anna’s, and then live and work towards meeting Jesus when He returns.