This morning I was reading in Luke, chapter one. Not because it’s Advent, but because I am falling in love with the gospels. I just got done reading Mark and have been mesmerized by the sights and sounds of life with Jesus. For some reason, reading them right now seems fresh and new……for me, a visual thinker, I have enjoyed picturing the scenes as they unfold….
That is where I was this morning reading Luke. It’s a familiar passage about Uncle Zach and Auntie Beth finding out they are to have a baby.
Here is Pastor Zech doing his duties when an angel appears, standing beside the alter. Perhaps like George Burns in the movies where he depicted heavenly beings. The angel says,
Your prayer has been heard. Your wife will have a son…..
This struck me. I wonder how long ago Zach and Beth prayed for a baby….decades? How before had they stopped praying? Had they long forgotten their prayer for a child?
Later in the passage, after Uncle Zach scoffed in disbelief, he was told he would lose his voice because he did not believe the angel’s words “which will come true at their proper time.” (1:20). Oops. I guess he was shown who is in charge of time, and answered prayer.
The element of time seemed to jump from the pages.
In God’s time, a seemingly unanswered prayer was answered.
In God’s time, an impossible situation would take happen, just as God said.
These principles of time are not removed from our lives today. I had to wonder how many prayers are uttered that are forgotten or deemed “unanswered” because God doesn’t answer them in our time. I wonder how many times we scoff God in disbelief about something He says He will do, but seems unrealistic to us.
What if we were stricken speechless like Zach every time we respond in disbelief to God?
The world would be a must quieter place.
So, I’m challenged to rest more in God’s timing, to not give up on prayer, and to believe more boldly in the promises of His word.
I don’t want to be left speechless because of disbelief or scoffing at the Living God.
…..I’d rather be left speechless anticipating His perfect timing and answered prayer.
Wouldn’t you?
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