Living Stones – Friday, December 22, 2017
Faithful, prayerful
Luke 1:13
“Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard;
In the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird, the novel’s protagonist Atticus Finch, tells the narrator, his daughter Scout that, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” The lesson is a very simple and universal one, that true compassion comes from empathy, from being able to put yourself in someone else’s position to feel what they felt in order to understand what they say or do what they say and do.
I have come to the conclusion that there are some things that we would never understand once those things remain outside of our actual personal experience. One of those things is childlessness or barrenness, more familiarly called infertility today. For those for whom the natural systems work, you have no idea of the emotional, psychological, social, cultural, medical, ethical, and spiritual burdens and pain carried by the infertile who keep trying and praying.
God is after relationship with people, individual people, and so God is concerned about each of our personal issues and crises. There is a big picture, but God doesn’t miss the trees because of the forest.
And so we come back to the passage we are contemplating, Luke 1:5-25. Zacharias, the old priest from the hill country, had a very personal problem, he and his wife Elizabeth we’re infertile. The normal, natural systems weren’t working, and the pressure was on. This situation had no doubt drained them emotionally, troubled them psychologically, pressured them socially and culturally, and must have challenged them spiritually.
In their brief biography, the scripture records that “they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” Luke 1:6. The biography then injects the big but in verse 7, “But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.” Elizabeth had lived through barrenness and now, at her age, all hope was all but gone. Elizabeth’s biography closes with a note that highlights her social struggles, because of the reproach she lived with, she hid herself and her baby bump from the society that had for so long kept her under pressure.
Just like Zaharias, everyone comes to church, comes to God with a need. Many of us have needs today. A need for money to get out of debt, need for healing of a broken relationship, need for healing in the body, need for a child, or some other need. Many of these needs have been with us for a while.
A big challenge that we face is spiritual, how do we remain committed in spite of the outward circumstances. Commitment is often affected or dependent on circumstances. Many of us struggle with commitment when we are in difficulty and do not hear a word from God, or our prayers go seemingly unanswered.
In our text Zacharias, had his deep personal problem, but there were also problems in his community and huge problems in his nation. On this day when he was selected for service he had to have all of these on his mind. As a husband and Jewish man he had to be troubled by his lack of offspring and heir, and as a priest he had to be concerned about the community and country and be praying for them.
There are two lessons that we could learn from Zacharias, the first, whatever the issues we face, we need to remain faithful and prayerful because God responds to the faithful and prayerful.
Gabriel, one of the two named angels in scripture, shows up after centuries of silence and says to this old priest – your prayer is heard. What a joy it would be if each of us in the privacy of our rooms were to get a visitation from God’s messenger and he opened with – “your prayer is heard.” The only way we could get this introduction is if we have been faithful to God in all things and have been constantly before him in prayer.
The second lesson builds on the first and it’s this, God starts with the faithful and prayerful. God was about to do the most significant thing in human history. The saviour was about to come into the world. That which was promised in Genesis 3:15 was about to happen. The power of sin was about to be broken. Redemption, reconciliation, and restoration were all about to come through the cross and Gabriel who was about to announce these great things, first addressed the personal matter in the life of the first person to get the news.
Notice that, unlike the narrative that we are accustomed to, the first person to be told that the Massiah was about to be born was Zacharias. If his own child was to be the forerunner to the Massiah, then the Massiah was close behind, was close to being born!
But Gabriel didn’t start with that stuff, he started with the personal matters of concern to Zacharias and his family. God starts with you when you are faithful and prayerful. We like to hear the word for other people and not ourselves. But whatever the issue is in your home and family, your community or your country God wants a faithful and prayerful person to start with.
Here is what God says in Amos 3:7, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.” That is why when God was about to move against Sodom He made a decision to first advise Abraham and that gave Abraham a chance to intercede for the city and for his family Lot. “And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing,”” Genesis 18:17.
You should know before anyone else what things are about to come upon your household or your church or your community or your city or your country. And when you do, God gives you your own word, your own deliverance first.
Think on these things:
- Was there ever an unanswered prayer that challenged your faith in God?
- Have you ever been praying for something while under emotional, psychological, social, or cultural pressure?
- How are you preparing for this Christmas, apart from family, food, and fun, is there a place for sharing the Gospel story?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would remain faithful and prayerful in spite of the circumstances around us.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex