The Bible distinctly described Zachariah the priest, along with his wife
Elizabeth, as righteous and blameless before God, (Lk 1:6).
He was also a man of prayer. He had to, his wife Elizabeth was barren
and like his ancestor Isaac, he knew the solution was to pray to God about it,
(see Gen 25:21). He was well advanced in age, but he never stopped praying. His
ancestor Abraham was also old, and that didn’t stop him from siring Isaac; so
he kept praying. Day after day, night after night.
And one day, while he was faithfully carrying out his duties in the
temple, (he was not like some Believers today who would refuse to serve God
until God answered their prayers), an angel appeared to him!
Right there in the Holy Place, while he was offering up incense, (a
physical symbol of prayer to God), the Angel Gabriel – of all angels – appeared
to him!
“Fear not, Zachariah”, Angel Gabriel proclaimed, “your prayer is heard;
and your wife Elizabeth shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name John”.
(Luk 1:13).
HALLELUJAH! PRAISE THE LORD!! MY PRAYER HAS BEEN ANSWERED!!!
Shouted Zechariah,
uhmm, not really!
Instead Zechariah
said to the angel, “What proof is there for this? I’m an old man, and my
wife is beyond her childbearing years. ” (Lk 1:18 GW)
If Zechariah KNEW he
was an old man; if he KNEW his wife was “beyond her childbearing years”, then
why on earth was he praying for a child?
But before we get
judgmental about this faithless priest, let’s judge ourselves first. Can you
tell me what you prayed for this morning? Can you even still remember? Are you
expecting God to answer that prayer TODAY?
If any of our answers
to the above was negative, then we’re no better than Zechariah was; then we
have slipped into the realm of ‘praying for praying sake’: we have
become religious Pray-ers.
Beloved, God is not
sitting up there just checking how long you stay up talking to Him; we don’t
get brownie points for our prayer, that’s a paradigm from human religion.
We pray, not for time
to pass by, but for things to happen.
AMEN.
More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN
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