Ending the Year Strong (#OneMinuteMondays)

This year ends this week. 2021 will be behind us and 2022 will begin. With the craziness of the past twelve months, ending the year strong, in your mind, may be but just a dream. However, let me encourage you to seek to end this year strong and begin the new year right.

Consider the Context of Birth Narrative

In Luke after Jesus was born when Joseph and Mary went to the Temple, they met both Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:21-28). Both these godly individuals had successfully maneuvered through the rough days of the recent past, known as the silent years. During the Maccabean period, things were hard for Godfearing individuals as well as the nation in general. Life was not easy by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, you could say that life was hard. Now under the control of the Roman government, With political and spiritual unrest, these days were dark.

How did Simeon and Anna maintain their spiritual strength?

What we find though in the story is that both Simeon and Anna maintained their spiritual strength and integrity even in contrast to all that was going on around them culturally and personally. The question: how did Simeon and Anna maintain their spiritual strength? We read that they were older people – Simeon an older man ready to die; Anna a sixty-plus-year widow. Both of them understood suffering from a cultural, spiritual, and physical sense. Yet, they also both served well, maintained their spiritual vitality, and made a contribution to those around them.  How?

The text says that Simeon walked in the Spirit. As a righteous person who honored God in his daily living, he walked in the Spirit. For him, it was a special manifestation of the Spirit, unlike all of us who receive the 100% of the same Spirit in the moment of our salvation.

For Anna, Dr. Luke emphasizes the fact that she practiced the spiritual disciplines and served others selflessly.

Three elements allowed both of these individuals to overcome daily struggles and honor God in them: walk in the Spirit, practice spiritual disciplines, and serve others.

For All of Us…

They did not have anything that you do not have today. As you face your own pressures, suffering, and sin, you also can respond in God-honoring, Christ-exalting, and Holy Spirit-empowered ways. Walk in the Spirit. Practice spiritual disciplines. And, serve others. If you do these things, you will find renewed strength spiritually whatever it is you face personally.

May it be so with all of us as we wrap up this year.