Reflections from Juanita (2)

Transcript:

Luke 2:26 says, “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” This was what the Holy Spirit had told Simeon. Simeon was an old, righteous, devout man of God who had been waiting for the birth of Jesus Christ so that he could prophesy and bless him and praise him. This shows how dedicated Simeon was in meeting Jesus, to the extent that God promised to keep him alive. Now, Simeon was a very old man. And just imagine all the children that would have been born through the time in which Simeon was alive. But the fact that the birth of Jesus Christ was so important, seeing the Messiah was so important, that he had asked God if he could be preserved so that he could see him. And God kept his promise because, of course, God is a keeper of promises. He's not a man. So he cannot break promises.

This eagerness should also apply to us as we dedicate our lives to spending an eternity with Jesus Christ. Just like Simeon wanted to see Jesus Christ so badly before he died, we should desire to see Jesus Christ when we die or when he returns. We should desire to know him and prepare to get to see him, worship him, and praise him. And that should be the one thing in life that we keep on looking forward to. This also showed that the Holy Spirit dwelt with Simeon even before the Great Commission of Christ. As you know, in Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples as they were praying.

And Jesus Christ had promised this during the Great Commission, where he gave basically all the instructions that his disciples should use in their daily lives. But the fact that the Holy Spirit made known to Simeon that he would live and not die before he saw Jesus Christ already shows that the Holy Spirit dwelt with him a long time ago, which shows that this man must have been really committed and really, really loved. He must have felt the love of Jesus Christ and loved God so much to the extent that the Holy Spirit dwelt in him. I believe that we should all try to understand that. We should all try and live here and all try and have this particular quality of the Holy Spirit being in us and revealing things to us.

So from here, what I'll apply is I will be eager to meet and praise God and to spend an eternity with him, as I also depend on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which shows how important this is and how we need to take things more seriously, especially in being eager about the things of God. And my prayer is, dear God, I pray that I will be prepared and excited and eager for your return so that I may dwell with you in eternity. In Jesus' name. Amen. Because the most important thing about being a Christian, minus the fact that we are to evangelize and spread the love of God, is the fact that we are supposed to dwell with God and be happy with God and praise God and spend our whole lives with God. So that's all I have learned from Luke 2:26. Thank you.