Browsing over my Bible this morning and praying that the Lord will give me His word for the day to which I will reflect, I went over the Book of Luke. I have read it many times and heard preachers preach from this book but this time I felt it's different. I resolved to learn again from the very word of Jesus Christ and His life on earth so I started from the first chapter. Chapter 1 talks about the birth of Jesus Christ, the first Christmas ever celebrated. But in the very first passage, it's the promised birth of a servant to prepare the way of Christ: The birth of John the Baptist, as foretold.
The plot of the story goes like this: There was a priest named Zechariah with his wife Elizabeth (who was a cousin of Mary), who had no child borne to them. They prayed for it but still they had none until they got old. When it was time for the LORD to bless them with a child [John], Gabriel, an angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah while he was doing his chores at the temple. The birth of his son was foretold by the angel but Zechariah didn't believe at once because of their old age. Because of his disbelief, he was made mute until John was borne. His wife, however, believed and afterwards conceived a child and gave birth to John.
There are few things that made impact on me, something that is very personal. *** Zech, my man was a priest, a servant of the Lord, ordained and anointed to perform such a heavenward duty but sad to say he didn't see the answer to his prayers coming. Sometimes, even leaders can be very disbelieving or to some extent, most Christians are. Instead that we become example of Faith, we can be those who are doubting. This only confirms that we are not excused to have doubts. I sometimes doubt and it's my prayer that the Lord will bring me to a higher level of faith and say, "I believe Lord, please help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24)
*** God has His own time-table and He never forgets. We may have forgotten that we ever prayed for it, but God doesn't. He will do it in His perfect time and nothing can ever shut the door of favor once He opened it. (Revelation 3:7) I am blessed by the movie The Perfect Stranger. When Nikki got an invitation to have dinner with Jesus Christ, she was totally in disbelief. The Lord told her that she actually asked for it [to talk with Him] which Nikki forgot, but the Lord didn't.
*** Our disbelief will not hinder the Lord from doing what He has planned doing, it can still happen, only to other people's lives who believe. Zech's wife believed and so it still came upon his family. As members of family [especially when we are the only ones Christian], it is crucial that we don't lose our faith even in the midst of unbelieving parents and siblings. Every seed of faith we do counts in heaven, and the Lord never rejects an offering of a righteous [thru Christ]. We can be the only representative of our family, our campus, our offices, our friends.
*** It's for the Glory of the Lord that we will see it materialize. Every fulfilled promise is for the Lord's glory to be visible in our lives, every answered prayer is a manifestation of God's saving grace.
The Lord sees every single tear, he sees the sacrifices we've made...and He never cease to care.
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