Pastor’s Pen Pulpit Mother’s Day

May 14, 2006

SUMMARY OF A GODLY LIFE

Luke 2:36-38

Part one

And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage. and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers. At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

It has always been my conviction that all mothers should be great women. Most are, I suppose—at least in the eyes and esteem of children and husbands. God does place moms within the realm of certain esteem and honor. While all moms should be great women – not all great women are moms. The woman I want to write about in the next two pen pulpits, as far as we know, was not a mother, at least children are not mentioned, and she was a great woman. Her name is Anna and she was a Godly woman. Her entire history is compressed into three brief verses in Luke’s gospel.

Anna lived in a time when the spiritual barometer of Israel was at its lowest ebb. However, God always has a remnant, a minority – a nucleus or a small core of true followers. This certainly parallels the condition of our country today. However, one small light can make a tremendous difference in darkness in an era of decadence.

Something of her personal history “Anna” (O.T. Hannah) means “favor” or “grace”. How appropriate. Anna was a Prophetess – one who was given a divine message to speak. Anna’s mind, no doubt, was saturated with Old Testament Messianic prophecies. She spoke frequently of the coming Messiah to those who would listen. She was married in her mid teens. Anna must have been over one hundred years old, having been married for seven years, then widowed for eighty-four years. This woman learned to live alone! Anna was devoted to God as seen in verses 37 and 38.

There is one predominate trait that surfaces in this woman’s life: Faithfulness! Faithfulness, according to Charles Spurgeon is a paragon of virtues. How can we apply this for you today? You may not be able to be a lot of things in life, but you can be faithful to your calling as a Christian woman - or man. Is this not exciting? What is faithfulness? Some have called faithfulness, LONG OBEDIENCE IN ONE DIRECTION!

First of all Anna was faithful in purity of life – a virtue that is fast fading in today’s society. She obviously was faithful as a wife to her husband. She respected the virtues and honor of marriage. She was faithful as a widow to her God. Anna passed the prime of her life, middle age, mid-life and senior years, faithful to her God.

She could have remarried. She chose not to. When she made that choice, she accepted the consequences of that choice - namely, to remain sexually pure. Was Anna ever tempted? Of course she was – she was human (I Corinthians 10:13). She, no doubt, learned how to compensate the inevitable loneliness that accompanies the life of a single widowed person

She did not live in the past. She did not allow herself to live in the memories of a life that could never be regained. She did not think about going out and making up for lost time. She was devoted to Godly priorities and remained faithful to those priorities.

We must realize that fidelity is a rare and hated word in the majority of our society. Infidelity is sapping the strength of our churches. Television viewers are constantly fed a diet of this philosophy through the quality of programming that is coming into our living rooms (I Thessalonians 4:3-7).

What a challenge for all of us to pattern our lives after the Godly Anna. We’ll take up the remainder of this message in next week’s pen pulpit. Until then, God bless and have a blessed Mother’s Day.