One of the most common questions that we wonder about in our relationship with God is how He responds to our prayers. Is my prayer the will of God and if so why hasn’t He answered me? If God responds immediately to our prayer then the answer is obviously, “yes”. We like the “Yes” option and it happens way more often than we give God credit for. We live incredibly blessed lives filled with evidence of His goodness.
But there are still big items on our prayer list that seem to have no answer.
We can be assured that God always hears and answers our prayers in one of four ways even when there may appear to be no response.
- Yes, but not now
- Yes, but there is a need for obedience
- Yes, but here is a better option
- No
A good place to understand a “Yes, but not now” answer to prayer is in Luke chapter 1:6-23 where the angel is speaking to Zechariah when he was priest on duty to offer incense in the temple.
Zechariah was the father of John the Baptist and yet we find him in these verses still childless and at a very important event in his ministry as priest. He was chosen by divine selection (Urim and Thummim) to offer incense in the temple. This was a once in a lifetime honor as there were many other priests in the order of Aaron who were eligible to be selected. Zechariah has spent his entire life praying to God for a child and yet his wife Elizabeth remained barren. Now He is very old and had likely stopped asking for son a long time ago. Zechariah is wrongly but understandably assuming the answer to his prayer for a son is “no”.
The Bible records that both Zechariah and Elizabeth were completely righteous and yet still did not have a child. in fact, we find Zechariah fulfilling his duties as high priest which required rigorous levels of personal holiness. Sin was not the problem with Zechariah’s answer.
The timing of this moment is critical because Zechariah has been placed on a big stage of Israel’s religious annual calendar. There are thousands of people in and around the temple for this daily event and they will now be aware of John the Baptist’s birth because the angel visits Zechariah. In verse verse 13 the angel says , “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.”
Notice the past tense, singular “your prayer has been heard”. Zechariah’s first prayer as a young man was heard and the answer was, “Yes, but not now”.
At the time of Zechariah’s first prayer, Mary and Joseph were not even born yet. It was the sovereign will of God that John the Baptist would be a contemporary of Jesus, who was only 6 months younger, so that John could proclaim a baptism of repentance to prepare for the coming of the Lord. God put a desire for a son in the heart of Zechariah, God allowed Elizabeth’s barrenness, and He ordained that Zechariah would believe him for a son for his entire adult life.
The answer to Zechariah’s prayer was “Yes, but not now”.
Our lives and prayers are much more important, and much more intertwined with the destinies of others than we might at first realize. The answers are tied into the answers of others which is tied into His amazing eternal story (HIStory). The time between God closing one door and opening another is a hallway of waiting. Sometimes it feels like hell in the hallway but we can rest assured that God has heard and answered every one of our prayers.
We can be sure that God will answer our prayer and the timing we would have asked for if we knew everything he knows about our place in His story.
Comments are closed.
