Ladies Bible Class: A Glimpse of Anna ... Lesson 6

A Glimpse of Anna

By Patsy Norwood © 2026.  All rights reserved.  Any and all commercial use of this study is prohibited.  Permission is given for use in ladies Bible classes as long as there are no changes made in the study and no monetary gain involved.  This Bible study is written for women.

Luke 2: 36-38  (NASB)

And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.  She was advanced in years and lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four.  She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.  At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

We're moving on in our study of Anna, here's where we'll park for this lesson “… she never left the temple.” 

To begin this lesson we’re going to talk about the temple and in so doing we’ll better understand what ‘she never left the temple’ most likely means.

Here are some temple facts:

Solomon built the first temple.  (I King 6:1)

… Zerubbabel built the second temple when the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon. (Ezra 3:6)

 … Herod the Great built the Temple where Anna worshipped.  The temple that Anna worshipped in had four courts: 

… The outer court, which was the only place where Gentiles were allowed, was called the Court of Gentiles.

… The inner court which was divided into two parts (1) the women’s court where both Jewish men and women could enter.  This is where Anna worshipped and (2) the court of Israel where only Jewish men were  allowed.

… The fourth court was the Court of Priests. 

 If Herod the Great stayed true to the architectural plans of the previous temple then we know by reading Nehemiah 13:7-9 that there were rooms suitable for dwelling in the outer courts.  We also know by reading Luke 1:8 that Zacharias, the father of John, was at the temple to do the ‘appointed order of his division’ which according to I Chronicles 9:25 lasted for seven days.  Perhaps the rooms suitable for dwelling that we read about in Nehemiah were where the priests slept/dwelt while at the temple when they were not busy fulfilling their appointed roles.  It’s possible that Anna lived in one of these rooms or one of the many that are mentioned in the description of the Temple in I and II Kings and I and II Chronicles.  Scripture does not tell us where in the Temple that Anna lived; just that she ‘never left the temple.’

In this lesson we’ve focused on some possible physical dwelling places where Anna could have lived in the Temple, but there is also another dwelling place we need to talk about … it’s where Anna’s heart dwelt.  It seems that while Anna’s physical body dwelt in the Temple, her heart dwelt with God.  What does it mean for one’s heart to dwell with God?  Let’s take a look at Anna’s heart to see what we can find out by dissecting her actions.  We all know that our actions are a direct result from what’s in our hearts so let’s see if we can figure out what was in Anna’s heart or ‘where it dwelt?’ 

Look at verse 37 (Luke 2:37) and highlight some things that indicate where Anna’s heart dwelt.

Here are the things that I marked:

She showed up at her 'place of work' day after day ... "did not depart from the Temple"

"She served God", notice there is no mention of 'self' anywhere.

She 'fasted' ...

She 'prayed' ...

I also took notice of how frequent she 'fasted' and 'prayed' ... "night and day."

Hmmm .... are you getting the picture of Anna that I'm getting?

Let's move on ...

Circle ‘she never left the temple’ and write in the margin ‘she immersed herself in all things   godly.’  Anna’s surroundings were the epitome of godliness and while we don’t have the Temple to live in, we do have the option of choosing what we allow ourselves to be involved in, where we go and what we expose ourselves to.  Do we immerse ourselves in all things godly?

One more thing ...

Draw a squiggly line under ‘serving night and day with fastings and prayers’ and write in the margin ‘Anna was a prayer warrior.’ We’ll talk more about that in the next lesson.

It’s obvious that Anna’s heart dwelt with God, her actions tell us so.  

Where do our hearts dwell?  

Can others tell where our hearts dwell by our actions?  

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I love reading your comments, so don't be shy!

I'll meet you back here next Thursday for the next lesson.  

May you be blessed by this study!

patsy @ From This Heart of Mine

~ a place for women to gather and study God's Word ~ 

Ladies Bible Class: A Glimpse of Anna ... Lesson 5

A Glimpse of Anna

(Lesson 5)

By Patsy Norwood © 2026.  All rights reserved.  Any and all commercial use of this study is prohibited.  Permission is given for use in ladies Bible classes as long as there are no changes made in the study and no monetary gain involved.  This Bible study is written for women.

Luke 2: 36-38  (NASB)

And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.  She was advanced in years and lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four.  She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.  At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Here's the portion of these verses we're going to dissect in today's lesson “ … and lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four.” 

The name of Anna’s husband is not given but we do know that he died after only seven years of  marriage … how sad.  We have no record of Anna having any children either.  It seems that she was young, alone and most  likely childless in a society that was extremely difficult and that pretty much guaranteed a life of poverty for widows.  Yet, even as a young widow, she chose God.  I’m sure her Christian heritage, which we talked about in lesson three, had something to do with her choice.

What will our heritage/legacy say about our choices?

For whatever reason Anna never remarried but instead of focusing on what she didn’t have, she focused on what she could do … which was to devote her life to serving God. 

Is there a lesson in that for us?

When life gets difficult, do we focus on the negative and what we can't do, or do we purposefully and intentionally focus on what we can do?

Do we purposefully and intentionally devote our lives to serving God even through the tough times?

Questions:

 What does ‘choosing God’ look like in the life of a godly senior citizen woman?  

Think about a godly senior citizen woman you know?  How does she serve God?  

Take away lesson:  When life hands us difficult situations we should follow Anna’s example and choose God.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I love reading your comments, so don't be shy!

I'll meet you back here next Thursday for the next lesson.  

May you be blessed by this study!

patsy @ From This Heart of Mine

~ a place for women to gather and study God's Word ~ 

Ladies Bible Class: A Glimpse of Anna ... Lesson 4

A Glimpse of Anna ... (Lesson 4)

By Patsy Norwood © 2026.  All rights reserved.  Any and all commercial use of this study is prohibited.  Permission is given for use in ladies Bible classes as long as there are no changes made in the study and no monetary gain involved.  This Bible study is written for women.

This week's lesson is short and sweet but packed with impact ... if we dare to 'take in' it's message and implications for our lives.

Luke 2: 36-38  (NASB)

And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.  She was advanced in years and lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four.  She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.  At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

This week we're looking at the phrase … 'she was advanced in years.'

We touched on the message behind this lesson earlier, but we're going to revisit it here and delve a little deeper ...

Anna was advanced in years or in other words, she was a senior citizen.  We know from reading Luke 2:36-38 that Anna was at least 84 and possibly as old as 104 years old (Scripture is unclear on her exact age.). 

We also know from reading this passage that in spite of her age, in spite of her being a senior citizen and in spite of enduring the ailments that aging brings, she continued to serve God. 

At a time in life when a lot of ‘senior citizens’ feel like they’ve done their part and that it’s somebody else’s turn to fill their spiritual shoes, Anna gives us a different example.

Draw a box around the phrase ‘she was advanced in years’ in your Bible (Luke 2:36) and draw an arrow to the closest margin.  Write ‘senior citizen.’  Anna, at the age of at least 84 and quite possibly 104 was still actively serving the Lord.

What an example!

Questions:

What are some ways ‘senior citizens’ can serve God?    (I hope you will really think about this and comment.  I'll compile the list with some I've come up with and post it in a separate post.)

If you are a younger woman, what kind of example would you like to see in an older woman serving the Lord?  (Here again, I hope you will really think about this and comment.  I'll compile the list with some I've come up with and post it in a separate post.)

For further study … Another aged woman of the Bible

Lois … a grandmother … II Timothy 1:1-5

Neither Anna nor Lois let their age stop them from serving God ... and neither should we!

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I love reading your comments, so don't be shy!

I'll meet you back here next Thursday for the next lesson.  

May you be blessed by this study!

patsy @ From This Heart of Mine

~ a place for women to gather and study God's Word ~