Prayer and Promises

I’ve recently started reading through the Gospels again. I love how much you can learn about our God through them. For instance, I read Luke 1 the other day, and verse 13 caught my attention: “Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard.” The angel Gabriel tells Zacharias this before telling him that he and his wife Elisabeth will have a son even though Elisabeth is barren and they are both old. The passage doesn’t mention Zacharias’s prayer, so I wonder if this might have been a prayer that he and Elisabeth had been praying for many, many years. And I wonder if they had given up hope now that they were well past the age to have children. That’s what made this verse stick in my mind. God did hear their prayers even though it might have seemed like He wasn’t listening for a very long time.

Zacharias is mostly known for not believing Gabriel’s message and God’s making him mute until the baby was born as a result. I can understand his reaction, though. After so many years of praying and hoping then finally giving up that hope, it would be hard to believe that that prayer is finally being answered. I would probably have laughed, too. However, just because his response is understandable does not make it right.

It’s hard to believe that God is listening when life is so hard for so long. It takes choosing to believe what God has said about hearing His children is true. And He has said a lot!

Psalm 91:15 – “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.”

Psalm 10:17 – “LORD, thou has heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt causes thine ear to hear.”

Exodus 22:37 – “When he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious.”

Isaiah 41:17 – “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.”

2 Chronicles 7:14 – “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

1 John 5:14 – “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.”

Even though God may not be answering my prayers right now, He does still hear me. I need to have faith in that promise, no matter how hard life is while I wait.

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