Has Your Prayer Been Heard?

Luke 1:13 - But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, your prayer has been heard..." NIV
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• Answered Prayers

 Zechariah's prayer had been heard. What prayer? As we read further we are informed what was his prayer -"Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son,…"
 
He had been praying for a child and now that prayer was going to be answered. Zech and Elizabeth were going to have a son and he will be named John. We will come to know him as John the Baptist.
 
How long had Zechariah and Elizabeth been waiting for their prayer to be answered? We don't know exactly how long it has been but we can come up with some educated guesses. Lets say Zech and Elizabeth got married at 18 years of age. In that day getting married at 18 years old would have been easy to accept. Let's say they were married for 5 years before they started to pray for a child.
 
How old are they now? Luke 1:7 says, "But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years.
 
In the book of  Num. 8:23-25 - Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 24 "This is what applies to the Levites: from twenty-five years old and upward they shall enter to perform service in the work of the tent of meeting. 25 "But at the age of fifty years they shall retire from service in the work and not work any more.
 
We are informed that all the priests had to retire by the time they were 50 years old. Zechariah was considered "righteous in the sight of God" so he couldn't have been serving past 50 years of age or he would not have been considered "righteous in God's sight".
 
I will say Zechariah is 49 years old and if you subtract 23 years (the age when I hypothetically said they started praying for a child) this will leave us with 26 years that Zechariah and Elizabeth have been praying for a child.

• 26 Years

It took 26 years before God would answer their prayer. Now I know this is not an exact science. What I am trying to share with you is this: sometimes God doesn't answer our prayers immediately. Some time it takes years before God will answer them the way we want and one thing we should keep in mind is this, God could have said, "No." to their prayer and that still would have been an answer. I personally believe God said, "Wait a while Zechariah and Elizabeth."
 
God needed to fulfill His prophecies and Malachi said that there would be a forerunner before Jesus and this forerunner would be John the Baptist. God fulfilled the prophecy by having John born 6 months before Jesus. The apostle Paul says, Jesus was born in the fullness of time. In other words, when everything was just right Jesus was born.
 
Humans have known to be impatient and we want things when we want them and having our prayers answered is no different.
 
As a Christian our faith will always say our prayers will be answered exactly when God wants them answered and the timing will be perfect.
 
Don't give up on your prayers. Remember what the angel said to Zechariah: But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard…" 
 
Your prayers have been heard and God will answer them when the time is right.

 Think About These:
 
Bending our knees in prayer keeps us from breaking under the load of cares.
 
Prayer doesn't need proof, it needs practiced.
 
He stands best who kneels most.

Stay Pumped,

Gary A. Serago

​Minister of God's Word