Old and New

I was surprised that I was weeping—of all things—over a familiar passage of Scripture in Luke 2:25-40.  The Spirit of Holiness came upon me on the morning of September 4, 2015, as I sat at my kitchen table inviting revelation from the Holy Spirit as I read the passage.  I wept because I felt how the Holy Spirit honored Simeon and Anna for their quiet, holy faithfulness in serving God from a lowly position of obscurity—just two old people in deep devotion to God crying out for the “new” God had promised: their long-awaited Messiah.

Simeon, an ordinary man who lived in an ordinary house in Jerusalem, loved God with all his heart and prized fellowship with Him.  As a young man, perhaps he felt insignificant about his contribution to society, to the nation he loved.  Or perhaps he felt discouraged that he wasn’t talented, smart, or gifted like others.  I’d like to think he decided not to compare himself to those, and instead tucked himself in with God, and devoted his life to await the coming Savior of his nation. 

It’s likely he was distressed by the oppression of Israel by the Romans, and by the spiritual state of his people—a corrupted culture, influenced by the Roman way of life and thought.  Simeon chose to be a just and devout man, loving the Lord his God with all his mind, soul, and strength.

The Scripture passage said Anna was an old prophetess; I think it likely she was one hundred and ten years old.  Consider: she had been a widow eighty-seven years, after being married seven, which covers ninety-four years.  It’s probable she got married as a young girl at age sixteen, which, added to the ninety-four, would make her one hundred and ten years old.  Did she have family who could have cared for her?  I don’t know.  I can imagine Anna as a young widow at the age of twenty-three, wondering what to do with the rest of her life that stretched before her like an empty road that disappeared into a distant mist.  A road stripped of dreams she once held dear to her heart. 

Like Simeon, Anna chose to devote herself to be part of God’s answer for Israel by praying and fasting for her nation and the spiritual condition of her people.  She spoke forth the truth of God, His words from heaven.  Because of their faithful, whole-hearted devotion to God, Simeon, an old man, and Anna, an old woman, got to be in on the “new” God was doing. 

History records other stories of the “old” helping birth the “new” that God wanted to do. The great Hebrides Scottish revival, said to have been the greatest revival of all time, was birthed shortly after WWII because two elderly women, Peggy Smith, 84, and Christine Smith, 82, got together and constantly prayed for an outpouring of God’s Spirit.  As they got their church involved, they prayed the power of heaven down, and God sent Duncan Campbell to help birth a revival that shook the world.  It’s said that men aboard ships who passed the harbor fell under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and cried out to God for mercy.  People in the streets fell to their knees in repentance before God, receiving His salvation.  Work stopped.  Bars closed.  Crime ceased.

Heaven’s power knows no age limit, and Heaven’s power is desperately needed today in the church and our nation.  Prayer and fasting invite God’s intervention in the affairs of mankind on earth.

You may feel like you’re too old or unqualified or sense no special spiritual calling to do anything for God and His Kingdom.  But you can serve God with fasting and prayer.  You can pray for a Spirit of holiness to come upon the church once again, for lukewarm Christians to be set on fire by God’s Holy Spirit.  You can fast and pray for our nation to turn back to God.  Your heart can be fully devoted to God as Simeon’s was.  As Anna’s was.

I believe that someday at the judgment seat of Christ where rewards are given out, the highest honors will not go to well-known evangelists, or prophets, or teachers, or pastors, but to those who in obscurity served God with fasting and prayer.  Especially the “old” who got to be in on God’s “new.”  God rewards openly those who pray in secret. 

Copyright © 2015 Elaine Beachy