“My eyes have seen your salvation.” What a powerful statement. This passage of Luke introduces us to a man named Simeon—but all we really come to learn about him is that he was an ordinary man living faithfully in Jerusalem, and that God had spoken something personal in his heart. Simeon believed that, before he died, he would see the Savior God had promised to come. That’s it—no timeline, no explanation. Just a promise.

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Every day, Simeon showed up at the temple. He didn't know the day God’s promise would be fulfilled, but he trusted that the God who spoke it would be the God to complete it. And one ordinary day, a young couple entered the temple with their newborn baby, and Simeon just knew. This was the moment he had been waiting for. He took the child into his arms, and he burst into praise.

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The beauty of Simeon’s story is that it reminds us of how personally God works in us. God didn’t just fulfill a promise for the world, he fulfilled a promise to one individual heart. And this fulfillment came because Simeon kept showing up, kept trusting, kept believing that God’s word to him mattered, even when nothing seemed to be happening.

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That same tension exists in the Restoration Life we are stepping into as a church. We are celebrating what God has gathered—people, resources, vision—and we are also looking forward to what he is asking us to step into next. But beneath all that, God is also speaking to you personally. He promises you matter. Your story isn’t too small. Your faith is not overlooked.

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Like Simeon, we don’t always get specifics. Sometimes we get a whisper, a direction, or a sense of what God has for us. We get a nudge to be generous, or a prompt to trust, or a conviction to take a step that challenges us. And often, God’s promises require waiting, sometimes weeks, months, maybe even years. But when Simeon held that child, he didn’t celebrate a prophecy fulfilled. He celebrated a God who keeps his word.

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In this season, as we commit ourselves to the work of restoration and to the resources God has placed in our hands, the real question is not “What are we giving?” The deeper question is: Do we trust what God has promised us—both as a community and as individuals? If God can fulfill a deeply personal promise to an ordinary man in a crowded temple, he can fulfill his promises to you. Restoration life is not just about what we build together; it's about trusting the God who is faithful in every word he speaks.

Take some time to talk to the Lord and think over these questions.

· What is one personal promise God has spoken over your life?

· What makes it difficult for you to believe that God will fulfill it?

· Where is God asking you to keep showing up in trust?

· How might the Restoration Life vision be part of how God fulfills his promises in and through you?

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Father, you are so good. You are the breath in my lungs and the beat of my heart. Every day I have an opportunity to see your creation and will at work. Help me to seek you out in all that I do, and help me to remain faithful in the uncertain times—when the timing is unclear or the path is hidden from me. Remind me to trust what you have spoken to me. Give me the faith to keep showing up, to stay open, and to believe that you are at work in ways I have not seen yet. Guide my heart to trust you—personally, fully, and joyfully. Use my life, my resources, and my faith to be part of the restoration that you are bringing to our church and our world. Amen.