The angel said to Zechariah, “Do not be afraid; your prayer has been heard …” (Luke 1:13).

[Editor’s note: we welcome Elizabeth Lynberg to our CD writers’ team!  Look for her initial contribution later this week.]

Things quiet down a bit, in this week between Christmas and New Years’ as 2022 winds down to its last few days.  This is the last of our Unspeakable Joy series, and we very much hope we all will keep joyfully celebrating, even as our world tells us “it’s time to move on” to best-of lists and resolutions for a new year.

This week, we’re going to revisit a passage we looked at earlier in Advent, the story of the birth of John the Baptist (see Luke 1:5-25, then 57-66).  Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth are childless and “well along in years” as Luke puts it.  Zechariah is a priest and is assigned to offer in the Temple the incense that represents the prayers of God’s people, rising to the Lord like incense.  How many prayers have gone up in that smoke?

Zechariah’s ministry is interrupted by an angel, who tells him (a) not to be afraid and (b) that his prayer has been heard.

Which prayer?  Of all the prayers that Zechariah and Elizabeth have prayed over their many days and years, which prayer is now to be answered?

An impossible one: the prayer for a child.  The prayer that, I suspect, they had long since stopped praying, assuming that, based on their circumstances, God’s answer to their prayer for a son was “No.”

They were mistaken.

During this week, we invite you to make and take the time to have some honest conversations with God about your own prayers.  Take time to recognize and give thanks for those that have been answered, even if the answer came at a time and in a way that you hadn’t expected.

And also some time for those prayers that you have assumed got a “No” from God.  You’re right: God is not obligated to answer every prayer with a “Yes.”  But Elizabeth and Zechariah’s story teaches us that what we see as a “No” can at times be a “Not yet.”  A seed that lies dormant is not dead.

Deeper still, even when God’s answer is “No,” our passage shows us that not a single one of our prayers has gone unnoticed or dismissed.  Which one of our prayers is carefully attended to by Heaven?  Every last one.  Even those prayers that were in fact foolish or selfish or out of alignment with God’s purposes.  Even “foxhole prayers.”  Even the prayers we’ve quit praying. Perhaps there’s more going on when we pray than we understand.

And consider: maybe the prayers you assumed got a divine “No,” the prayers you may have stopped praying … maybe it’s time to speak with the Lord about those.  Maybe there is more for you to hear from the Lord about those prayers than what you assumed was a “No.”  Sometimes “No” is the first word of a much longer conversation!

Instead of “resolutions” – at least prior to any resolutions – can you make some space and take some time for conversations with the Lord about your prayers, all of them?  A seed that lies dormant is not dead!  Perhaps it simply needs some fresh attention from you? The way to know is to ask.