”Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6
We have been exploring just who our Father in heaven is. We need to know who we are speaking to when we pray. Our Father: Is Firm, Fair, Forgiving & Faithful; Attentive, Approachable, Accepting & Affirming; Tough, Tender, Transparent & Trustworthy; our Hope, Healing, Help & Home; who Edifies, Equips, is Exalted & Exalts; and that He is Reasonable, Reconciles, Runs To & Restores. The problem with so many is they fail to believe who God is, thus their prayer life becomes muted. To pray effectively, we must:
BELIEVE HIM…
”…You will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true…” Luke 1:20
Zechariah lost his voice because he did not believe in the possibility of God. He was stuck in the limitations of ‘man’ and could not see how God, from heaven, could impact his problem (barren) on earth. If we don’t believe, we can’t receive. A lack of faith causes us to be barren (no life). Having no ‘life’ results from having no voice: no voice = no communication; no communication = no communion; no communion = no community. Zechariah not only lost his voice, but, in a sense, became irrelevant (lost community). When his son was born, the relatives ‘made signs’ to him to see what to name him. Zechariah wasn’t deaf, he just had no voice. In a sense, he was out of the picture.
…TO BELIEVE IN HIM.
”…They made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, ‘His name is John. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God.” Luke 1:62-64
Zechariah wrote, ‘his name is John’ - just what the angel foretold. The point here is we only speak to and speak of what we believe in. If we don’t believe a person’s words, then we have no trust in them, and trust is essential for all true and lasting relationships (communion / community). Finally, Zechariah spoke what was true and what he now believed in. For us, if we too believe in God our mouths will be opened and our tongues set free to worship God.
Comments