Prayers and long waiting.
What starts out as vibrant, impassioned, hopeful prayer can sometimes fuzz and fizzle out with discouragement as waiting begins to feel like a permanency rather temporary.
I was reading in Luke 1 a couple of weeks ago and I was encouraged by a little jewel that I had overlooked before.
When Zechariah was serving as priest in the temple and Gabriel appears to him, he is told, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son…” (vs. 13). He was surprised by this announcement and in doubt said, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years” (vs.18). For those who remember, because he didn’t believe God’s words, he was mute until the birth of his son John (a simultaneously sobering and hilarious series of events).
God heard Zechariah’s prayer, and he remembered his prayer.
Had it been a long time since he had prayed for children? Had his formerly faith-filled prayers now become laced with doubt?
God heard and God remembered.
This is a comfort to those who feel stuck in weary cycle of praying and waiting. This is a reminder for the anxious heart that worried God has forgotten. God hears and remembers the prayers that his people pray, even after they have forgotten and become too discouraged to keep praying.
We can entrust what we hope for and wait for to our Father, and we can rest. We might forget. We might grow weary. Our hearts may fail us. But God will never overlook or forget – He will answer and bring comfort in His faithful way and time.
“I believe that I shall lookf upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” -Psalm 27:13-14
Hope in the Ashes 