And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with your whole heart. -- Jeremiah 29.13

This is the promise. As we approach Christmas, it’s easy for God to get lost in the shuffle. Our days and hours are filled with family and festivities or expectation, or joy, or stress. For even the most fervent lovers of God, it’s unlikely that there is going to be a lot of “whole heart seeking” these next couple of days. Today in Luke, we find a woman of God, a widow, who very clearly searched for the Lord with her whole heart. In the wake of her husband’s death, she did not curse God, but pressed in harder, served more fervently, and sought out the Living God. She waited decades in the same place until she witnessed God in the flesh, proclaimed the Good News to all, and found herself recorded in the world’s most sacred and powerful book.

Let’s process the passage and meditate on seeking the greatest gift we can ever acquire -- God in His fullness -- by searching with our whole hearts through any circumstance.

Luke 2.36-38

The Prophecy of Anna

36 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. 37 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. 38 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.

[ WHAT ] is this passage saying and what is a key truth or thought that we learn?

+ What gifts have you realized from seeking God?

+ Anna would have been well within her rights to sulk after her husband died. God is with the brokenhearted so He would have been with her. Instead, she practiced three things [v. 37]. What were they?

+ Anna stayed in the temple to find God. Same place. After Christ’s precious blood was shed, what is the amazing gift we as believers have when it comes to God and seeking Him in temples? [read I Corinthians 3.16-17 for an amazing answer]

+ What would you give to experience a moment like Anna experienced? What would you give to experience Christ?

[ HOW ] is the Lord calling me to action/obedience?

+ Is there sin to confess or a next step to take? How has it gone since last time?

+ During Christmas, meditate on Jesus as you open gifts. Run the gifts through your fingers. Practice gratitude for the gifts (unless they are socks, haha)...and remember that they will fade away. Then thank Jesus (who is near to you), that He is a gift that will never fade and will increase the more we seek Him.

[ WHO ] am I walking with and praying for to discover Jesus?

+ What is my next step?