Faithful Exiles: Finding Hope in a Hostile WorldSample

Anna’s life task was the work of persistent prayer. And when we, too, feel like exiles—when we live in neighborhoods and belong to families where seemingly no one else shares our deepest convictions—we can learn from her.

Anna “did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day” (v. 37). Only in eternity will we know exactly what Anna prayed, but, as a faithful Jew, she would have asked the Lord to supply all her needs. In this way, her prayers were probably not much different from many of our own.

But Scripture leads us to believe that Anna’s prayers were more than lists of temporal needs. Her commitment to fasting and her dedication to round-the-clock intercession over many decades points to prayers that rose above simple reactions to daily needs and desires. Anna’s prayers were not dictated by the concerns of the moment. Anna’s prayers were for the fulfillment of the greatest promise God had ever made: redemption.

Anna knew that what she and the rest of God’s people needed was not merely a nice life, or even a life in their own land. What they needed was redemption from their sins, reconciliation with their God, and re-creation of their hearts. What they needed was the Messiah—promised to Adam and Eve in the Garden and looked for by the faithful ever since. When she prayed, Anna asked Yahweh to send the Christ.

And Anna didn’t give up praying. To pester the Lord like she did—day and night for decades upon decades—would be audacious, except that God himself had commanded it:

On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. (Isa. 62:6–7)

Anna came boldly because God told her to be bold. Anna kept asking because God told her not to quit. Like another famous widow in the parable that Jesus would later tell, Anna didn’t stop begging God. And like that widow, Anna teaches us “always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1).