Twelve Extraordinary Women by John MacArthur
Week 8: Chapter 7 — Anna: The Faithful Witness
Read Chapter 7 of Twelve Extraordinary Women. Primary passages: Luke 2:36–38.
Previewing Week 8 of Twelve Extraordinary Women
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Anna appears in only three verses — but MacArthur argues that those three verses reveal a lifetime of faithfulness that God honored with the greatest privilege imaginable.
Discussion Questions
8 questions1.Anna's entire story is told in just three verses (Luke 2:36–38), yet MacArthur devotes a full chapter to her. What does it say about how Scripture values a life that God can sum up a lifetime of faithfulness in so few words — and that those few words are worth this much reflection?
2.Anna was a widow who had been married for only seven years before her husband died, and who then served God in the temple for decades — fasting, praying, worshipping "night and day." MacArthur describes her as a woman who had learned to make God Himself her home. How had widowhood shaped her devotion rather than destroying it?
3.MacArthur points out that Anna was eighty-four years old when she saw the infant Jesus. She had been waiting — and watching — for Israel's redemption for most of her life. What does her long wait teach us about perseverance in prayer and hope deferred?
a.Is there something you have been waiting and praying for over many years? How does Anna's story encourage you?
b.What is the difference between waiting with bitterness and waiting with worship?