Dear Father in Heaven,

We thank you for the work that Luke the beloved physician did in order to help us, generations later, to be more certain about our faith. We thank you for his research, writing and faithfulness to Christ.

Through these words that we have read today and even more as we continue to study this Gospel, inspired by the Spirit, we pray that you would reveal Christ to our hearts.

Like Simeon, we want to see Jesus for who he really is. We want to know him as your salvation, through which you have rescued us from sin and its well-deserved punishment.

Please Father, establish us in our faith, ground us in it.

And like the shepherds or the prophetess Anna, use us to glorify your name before others.

In Christ,

Amen.