PRAYER PRACTICE
Prayer Journal – To begin your daily worship today, grab a pen and paper and write out a prayer to God. Not sure what to write? Try using ACTS to frame your prayer. Begin with adoration for who God is. Then move on to confession – being real about where you have fallen short in the last day or two. Give thanks to God for all that He gives (including forgiveness for the sin you just confessed!). And then finish with supplication – with your prayer requests to God. When you are done, tuck this away somewhere (so you can read it later and see how God has answered your prayers) and then move into hearing from God through His Word.DAILY READING
REFLECTION
Perfect Timing
by Elaine Pierce
Have you ever had to wait for something a long, long time? Maybe when you were younger, and you counted down the days until Christmas (now that you're older, you wonder how you will ever get it all done before the 25th). Maybe you longed for a child, a home, a good job, or a friendship restored; you prayed and prayed and it didn't seem like God was listening.
As I read today's passage, I wondered if Simeon and Anna felt that way. They longed to see the Messiah, and they knew that God had promised them they would see him before they died. But they are getting old, and there is no sign of this great King who will come and save the Jews from bondage to the Romans.
Do you think they were surprised when God revealed to them that this 8-day-old baby was indeed the Messiah they had been looking for? His parents were poor - they only had pigeons to present at the temple for a sacrifice. They were not prominent in the community. How could this be?
Luke doesn't record what they might have thought initially. But it is clear that they believed that Jesus was the Son of God. Read again what Simeon said:
"....my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel." (Luke 2:32).
If you are a gentile like I am, you can take heart that Gentiles have been included in God's plan from the beginning!
Anna's comments are similar, as we read in Luke 2:38 "...she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
God's timing is always perfect, even when we think he is slow to answer. 2020 has been a hard year, hasn't it? We long for 'normalcy,' for the pandemic to be over. In Tim Keller's book, Hidden Christmas, he talks about how God's timing is different from ours - “You cannot judge God by your calendar. God may appear to be slow, but he never forgets his promises. He may seem to be working very slowly or even to be forgetting his promises, but when his promises come true (and they will come true), they always burst the banks of what you imagined. . . . God’s grace virtually never operates on our time frame, on a schedule we consider reasonable.”
Simeon and Anna may have questioned God's timing, but rest assured, he makes the rules, and it is our job to rest in his good timing.
Take heart. "A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices/For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn." Those words from the beloved Christmas hymn "O Holy Night" ring especially true for this hard year. Yes, a new and glorious morn will break. Jesus has come. Rejoice!
Discussion Questions for individuals, families and small groups.
