DAY 10

JUST SHOW UP

NIKKI CATHERINCCHIA, TEACHING PASTOR

My name is Nikki and I love God’s Word. Not only do I love God’s Word, but I love the people God puts on display in the pages of Scripture. Every person’s story shares a little more of what God desires us to know and I just want to soak it all in. Of course

most people in this context would think of the big guns; Abraham, Moses, King David, Queen Esther, Mary, the 12 disciples, Paul, just to name a few of the more notable. Not me! Not at all. Nope, I like the obscure people. You know the ones that only get mentioned once, maybe twice if they are really lucky. Now please hear me, not everyone mentioned once in the Bible is worth taking a deep dive into. In fact, if you tried, you would have a hard time finding much on these one hit wonders. However, every once in a while God uses people in small but mighty ways. These are the people that if we skim over them, we will miss something...something really big. We must never let these people’s lack of staying power deceive us into believing that their moment in Scripture isn’t powerful.

Two such people that have become a couple of my favorites over the last several years are a man named Simeon and a woman named Anna. They are found in the second chapter of Luke’s Gospel - but if you blink, you might miss them. In fact, I bet some of you have read this portion of the story of Jesus’ birth and never gave Simeon and Anna a second thought. If that’s you, it’s ok. That was me too for a very long time. However, more recently God has drawn my attention to the little space of real estate that Simeon and Anna hold in Scripture. Let me share it with you. We will meet Simeon first.

At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God... —Luke 2:25-28 A short time after we witness Simeon praising God we will meet 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.[c] 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

In this story, three things are abundantly clear about Simeon and Anna. First and foremost, they were devoted to God. Luke tells us that Simeon was a righteous man with the Holy Spirit upon him, and Anna lived in a posture of prayer and had the heart of a true worshiper. Day and night she remained in the Temple. That' commitment. The second thing that is clear about these two is that they were eager to see God fulfill His promises. God promised the Messiah would come, and they believed for the Messiah’s arrival. Finally, what these two incredible people of faith teach us is the power of showing up. They both waited, eagerly and expectantly, for God to do what He had promised to do. The little bit that Luke tells us about Simeon and Anna is actually quite a lot. They were faithful, they trusted, and they showed up to see God move because they eagerly expected Him to move. The process wasn’t easy, nor was it quick. Simeon had been waiting so long that the promise was that he would not die before the Messiah came. For Anna, it was the heartbreak of losing her husband at a very young age that set her on the decades long journey of living a life of complete devotion. In the waiting and the struggle, they both chose to show up. Day after day, they eagerly awaited a movement of God.

In a recent conversation with a dear friend and mentor, I shared with her a God dream that had been birthed in me over a decade ago. When the dream was first planted in my heart, I was coming out of a season of profound grief. At the time, I thought it was a dream God wanted me to immediately act upon. However, as door after door painfully closed, God revealed it wasn’t time yet. He still had to prepare me for what He had prepared for me to do. So I waited. Placing the dream on the backburner, I began to walk in what God had for me right now rather than what might be one day. About three years ago, God gave me the green light on the dream. Yet, I have not done a single thing. You see, in the wait, I stopped eagerly expecting God to do anything with the dream He placed in my heart so long ago. In accordance with the old adage “out of sight, out of mind,” my God dream was placed so far on the backburner that when God called me to forward motion, I was paralyzed and have remained so. There is no way to sugarcoat this so I will just rip the band aid off...my lack of action is disobedience. God has called me to something, and I have failed to show up. As I spoke this out loud for the first time to my mentor, she spoke Holy Spirit inspired words back into me. She reminded me that God doesn’t need my offering to be perfect, He just needs me to show up so He can move. I don’t need to worry about having it all figured out, I just need to show up and trust that He holds it all in His hands. According to His will, in His timing, by His methods, it will become what He desires it to be if I show up for the assignment.

Simeon and Anna showed up for the assignment. They believed in the promise for a Messiah. Day and night for decades, they eagerly expected His arrival. They devoted their lives to knowing that if God promised something, He was good for it. The wait was long and their circumstances were not always easy, yet they chose to trust. They chose to show up. Isn't it amazing what God can teach us through two people who only grace 15 verses of Scripture? Make no mistake, Simeon and Anna teach us that when we trust, even in the wait, even in the difficulty, God never fails to show up. It might not look the way we thought, it might take a whole lot longer than we wanted, but when we show up, eager and expectant, God moves.

PRAYER

As you pray today, take a personal inventory. Are you showing up, every day, eager and expectant for God’s movement? What have you been believing for? Do you trust God’s will, His timing, and His methods? What dream or prayer has God planted in your heart? Are you still praying for it or have you given up? Where have you seen God’s faithfulness in your life? Have you shown up to praise Him, to testify to His goodness? Today is the day...declare what you are believing for, lift up your praises, lift up those prayers you have given up on, fix your gaze on Jesus and show up to walk in the fullness of obedience. Confidently knowing that when you do show up, God has a way of exceeding all expectations.