Saturday in the Word | Anna and the Faithfulness of Staying

We don’t talk enough about the holiness of staying.

Anna’s story is brief, almost easy to overlook. Her story is captured in just three verses tucked into the birth narrative of Jesus. No miracle is attributed to her. No long speech is recorded. No dramatic journey is written down.

Just her faithfulness.

She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

Luke 2:37 (ESV)

Luke tells us Anna was a prophet, a widow for most of her life, who “never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.” Decades passed. Empires shifted. Prayers went unanswered. Yet Anna stayed.

This kind of waiting isn’t passive. It’s not standing still with folded arms. It’s remaining when everyone else has long gone. It’s showing up again and again when nothing seems to change.

Staying requires endurance.
Staying requires trust.
Staying is obedience when there’s no applause.

Anna teaches us that longevity matters to God. Years spent praying are not wasted years. Worship offered in obscurity is still seen. Faithfulness that stretches across decades carries weight in heaven.

And then the moment arrives.

At just the right time, Anna sees Him. The promise she had waited for walks into the temple in the arms of His parents. Her waiting ends not with explanation, but with fulfillment.

Imagine the joy.

She responds the only way she knows how: with gratitude and proclamation.

Some of us are in seasons where the call isn’t to move on, but to remain. To keep praying. To keep worshiping. To keep trusting that God honors the faithfulness of staying.

Anna reminds us:
Waiting is not wasted when it is rooted in devotion.
Staying is sometimes the bravest act of faith.

Reflection

Where is God inviting you to remain even though you’re tired of waiting?

Wherever you are in the world, may this season of waiting draw you closer to the Light that has already come and is set to return.

Until my next post…

Be salty, stay lit.

Rainer Bantau —The Devotional Guy™

Today’s post is part of #ADVENT2025, a global blogging collaboration among a number of Christians seeking to glorify God by drawing people’s hearts and minds to Him. If you’re interested in joining us in our ADVENT2025 project, please feel free to do so. The idea is simply to magnify and glorify Christ as we point people to Him. We’d love to have you share your Advent thoughts and experiences with us. Please be sure to tag your posts with ADVENT2025. There is plenty of room at the table.