An Old Man Gave a Speech He Had Long Been Waiting to Give!
Have you ever had something on your mind that you wanted to get off? Sometimes we have something on our chest, so to speak, that we can’t wait to get off – sometimes it’s somebody we want to tell off. Then there are those times we have a "word" that we are so excited about that we can’t wait to share it. What if you had to wait to give that word for years and years? While it is not recorded exactly when God told Simeon that he would see the Messiah, it is certainly indicated that he waited many years, as did his counterpart, Anna. She appeared to have waited over 80 years:
5 While fulfilling these sacred obligations at the temple, they encountered a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was a just and pious man, anticipating the liberation of Israel from her troubles. He was a man in touch with the Holy Spirit. 26 The Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Anointed One. 27 The Spirit had led him to the temple that day, and there he saw the child Jesus in the arms of His parents, who were fulfilling their sacred obligations. Luke 2:25-27 (The Voice)
Most of us have a hard time keeping a secret a day or two. And yet these two godly people waited for years to see the "coming of our Lord". They believed. They trusted. They made sure they were at the place where God assured them they would see him. They had a single mission and were determined to meet it.
I confess that there are things that I have felt God spoke to me that because of my advancing years I have wondered if I heard correctly. "Surely God, it’s too late …" This has been my lamenting cry more than once. One of the hardest things to receive in our finite minds is the concept of time – our time we understand, God’s time we don’t.
Maybe it’s a good time to brush off that dream you put on the shelf; place again in the forefront of your prayers that promise God breathed to you long ago; rehearse that "Word" again He told you to share – while you’re on this side of glory be ever ready to fulfill the plan of God!
Maria