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christmas women

Celebrating The Women of The Christmas Story – The Senior Citizen

Still wondering who the Senior Citizen is?

See the INTRODUCTION FOR THIS SERIES in the #SoulH2O post two weeks ago Celebrating the Women of The Christmas Story The series is talking about how each of the #ChristmasWomen were:

CARRIERS – OF THE PROMISE & PRESENCE OF GOD

THE MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN – ELIZABETH was the first Christmas Woman celebrated. I talked about how she protected the promise of God. Last week celebrated THE TEENAGER – MARY discussing how she was willing to be inconvenienced to carry the promise and very presence of God, Emmanuel: God with us.

Read on to learn about our last Christmas Woman everyone’s been wondering about…

THE SENIOR CITIZEN…

Since I’m totally breaking my format for #SoulH2O devotions with this series, I decided to share the whole of Anna’s story with you (a whopping 3 verses) because so many of you have commented or sent me messages saying you can’t wait to see who the Senior Citizen is. This lets me know that many of you don’t know who she is, so you probably don’t know her story and she’s absolutely a woman worth celebrating!

The Prophecy of Anna

“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. 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. 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.” Luke 2:36-38 NLT

Anna is the last of our Christmas women. She was the only woman who didn’t carry a physical baby in her body, but there is no doubt in my mind that she carried the promise and presence of God to the people in her day.

Anna knew what it was like to face hard times. She was widowed at a very young age and never had any children. During Jesus’ time, women who weren’t married didn’t hold much value in their society so this fact lets you in on how “unimportant” Anna could have seemed to many in her day, but Anna was a prophet. She spent her days serving in the temple, worshipping God with fasting and prayer.

It was out of this lifestyle that she heard from God and shared His messages to His people.

There’s so much that sticks out in my mind about Anna, but the words waiting expectantly from Anna’s life-story just jump out at me and Christmas really is a time when people are found waiting expectantly.

WAITING EXPECTANTLY

For centuries children on Christmas Eve have hung stockings by the fireplace and struggled to fall asleep with nervous anticipation of what Santa will bring in the morning. My kids were no different than the masses.

In order to help my kids be able to fall asleep on Christmas Eve I started a tradition where they were allowed to open one gift at bedtime. That gift was always a pair of new pajamas and a book. Not the most exciting gift, but it created the atmosphere I hoped for. Brandon and Shelby would change into their PJ’s and were allowed to read their new books before lights out. The PJ’s made for nice pictures on Christmas morning and the books helped them fall asleep.

Waiting expectantly on Christmas Eve is pretty simple for kids since they know the next morning is Christmas day and they can see wrapped presents under the tree.

The way Anna and others waited expectantly for the promise of God to be fulfilled wasn’t so easy. Anna had been waiting for about 60 years. She was doing all the right and good things while waiting but she had been waiting for oh so long! She never gave up hope waiting for the promised Emmanuel, the Messiah…JESUS to come.

Maybe you’ve been waiting a long time for your promise. Maybe you feel like too much time has passed and you need to “move on” or “give up”. I pray Anna’s story restores your hope and gives you faith to believe. Know that at Christmas and always, God keeps His promises and fills you with His presence while you wait.

Prayer

Father…I thank You that you’re not like Santa doling out gifts I don’t need. You make promises to me and fulfill them in Your perfect timing. You know exactly what I need and what’s best for me. Help me to trust You and Your timing. May I live with a special expectancy this Christmas carrying my Promise from You and Your Presence within so I can share it with the world when my promise is ‘born’. In Jesus Name…Amen

ANNA CARRIED THE PROMISE AND THE PRESENCE OF GOD…
I WANT TO BE LIKE HER.

Soul H2O Radio & Podcast Christmas Series- The Brave Senior Citizen & Brave Cyndi

During the Christmas season, were running The Brave Christmas & Christian Women Series. Episode 50 is Part2 of The Brave Senior Citizen & Brave Cyndi. In This Series, were Celebrating The Women of The Christmas Story and a few of their contemporary counterparts.

Cyndi Desjardins Wilkens isn’t a Senior for a long time but an author and quadruple amputee who shines the light of Christ at Christmas and every day throughout the year!

If you liked the refreshing in this #SoulH2O devotion, you love my latest Soul H2O Devotional book: 40 Thirst Quenching Devotions for Women.

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If you liked the refreshing in this #SoulH2O devotion, you love my latest Soul H2O Devotional book: 40 Thirst Quenching Devotions for Women.

WHERE YOU CAN OFTEN FIND ME LINKING UP MY BLOG WITH OR PLACES WHERE MY WRITING HAS BEEN FEATURED

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Celebrating The Christmas Women | A Middle-Aged Woman

For the next 3 weeks before Christmas, I’m going to release 3 posts Celebrating The Christmas Women. I really wanted to title this series: The Teenager, A Middle-Aged Woman, and The Senior Citizen I Want to Be Like, but I thought it was a little long 🙂

Parts of these posts I shared in a message at Christmas events. There’s just so much to the lives of these women that I can’t get away from their stories and how it relates to the birth of Christ. I want to share these snippets of their stories with you so you can see the hope of Christmas, our hope in Christ as we learn from these women and begin to model the character they lived.

Each of these women were:

CARRIERS – OF THE PROMISE & PRESENCE OF GOD

All three of these women carried inside of them the promise of their savior, the Messiah. The Christmas women all spent time in the presence of God so, when God’s promises were present in their lives they immediately recognized them. Each woman’s life in the Christmas story affected people around them as they pointed the world to Christ.

These three believed in the promises of God and trusted in God’s timing. It’s my greatest desire to be like the Christmas Women, to carry inside of me the promise and the presence of God. I want my life to affect others so they look to Christ, to live out a strong faith, believing in His promises with a confident trust in His timing to fulfill them.

It’s my prayer, that by the end of this series you want to be like these women too.

So let’s begin our Christmas Festivities,

Celebrating the Women of The Christmas Story!

The first woman in the Christmas story…Jesus’ Story…is actually:

THE MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN

“When Zechariah’s week of service in the Temple was over, he returned home.Soon afterward his wife, Elizabeth, became pregnant and went into seclusion for five months. “How kind the Lord is!” she exclaimed. “He has taken away my disgrace of having no children.”
Luke 1:23-25 NLT

Luke starts his gospel account starting with the record of a couple named Zechariah and Elizabeth and he tells us this couple was old, that was his way of saying Elizabeth was passed the age of child-bearing. One day while working in the temple, an angel tells Z that Elizabeth his wife is going to have a child, and not just any child.

Their child would be the one prophesied about in Malachi 4:6. He wast to be the forerunner for the Messiah.

“And he will go on before the Lord…to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (NIV)

It’s pretty clear from Z’s reaction that he had long since given up on the dream to have a child before the angel came to meet him at work. Z didn’t believe and as a sign from God that God could do what He said, Z was unable to speak for 9 months, until the birth of his son.

ELIZABETH

On the other hand, Elizabeth immediately believed and because of her faith, Elizabeth carried John the Baptist; the one who would prepare the way for the Christ, in her womb. Elizabeth protected the promise of God inside of her by staying secluded for 5 months, she took extra precautions to make sure the promise of God inside of her was able to grow and mature. Elizabeth didn’t let anyone talk her out of her promise from God. She didn’t allow anything to stop it from being birthed.

Be like Elizabeth…
Protect the promise of God in your life. Luke 1:24

This Christmas, think about the promises God has given you as a believer in His Word and the one’s He’s given to you personally. Protect those promises. Give them room to grow in your heart, your mind, and in your life so you can see them birthed like the baby, John The Baptist.

ELIZABETH CARRIED THE PROMISE & THE PRESENCE OF GOD…I WANT TO DO THE SAME #ChristmasWomen

Prayer

Father…I thank You for all the promises in Your Word and for speaking directly to me. Help me to put a shield around your promises so they will have room grow so I’m able to carry them to full-term; watching Your promises be fulfilled in Your timing.   In Jesus Name…Amen

Soul H2O Radio & Podcast Christmas Series

During the Christmas season, were running The Brave Christmas & Christian Women Series. Episode 48 is Part1 of The Brave Middle-Aged Christmas Woman & Brave Cheryl. In This Series, were Celebrating The Women of The Christmas Story and a few of their contemporary counterparts.

Now, I know we’re supposed to focus on Jesus and we will be but I think it’s good to take some time and recognize the impact some of these brave women had in the Christmas narrative and in our world today. I know you’re going to be inspired by my friend, Cheryl Nembhard. She’s a TV & Podcast Host, Speaker, Author, & Social Justice Advocate.

You can find the full story of Zechariah and Elizabeth in these portions of scripture:

Luke 1:5-25             John The Baptist Birth Foretold
Luke 1:39-56 Mary Visits Elizabeth
Luke 1:57-66 Elizabeth gives birth to the Promise of God

Did you like the refreshing in this #SoulH2O devotion? Then you’ll love my latest Soul H2O Devotional book: 40 Thirst Quenching Devotions for Women and I hope you’ll Subscribe to receive weekly Soul H2O devotions.

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This devotion was originally posted on December 5, 2016.

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