A Hope Delayed

How long do you pray for something you desperately want? As seasons fade into years, and prayers remain unanswered, what then? Does your faith waver as your prayers wane? Is this how hope filled hearts become bitter?

I’ve prayed earnestly and for so very long for things my heart aches for; desires I believe are in accordance with God’s will, and yet the Lord does not answer me. The trite response, I suppose, is to tell myself that anything God does not say yes to, He must be answering with a no or not now. This, my friends, is no consolation to me. Because it certainly feels as though more of my prayers have been ignored than answered. Do I just not know how to pray?

Zechariah’s story doesn’t get much airtime apart from the Christmas season, and he’s most often remembered for being rendered mute by disbelief that the Lord was giving him a son. As we look more closely at his life, recorded in Luke 1, we read he was a priest, and both he and his wife were righteous in God’s sight, living without blame according to all the commands and requirements of the Lord. Surely, if anyone’s prayers were to be heard and answered, it would be theirs!

Except, they weren’t.

Zechariah and Elizabeth had no children because she could not conceive, and they were well along in years.

“Hope delayed makes the heart sick…”

Zechariah continued to serve the Lord as a priest, and I wonder if by the time we meet him, his dream of being a parent had shriveled to a tiny shred of faith. Did he wonder if the God who Sees had seen him? By the casting of lots, Zechariah was chosen to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. Before the altar, in the most holy place, a priest could perform this duty just once in a lifetime. It’s here, in this sacred space, that Zechariah’s prayer is answered. “Your wife Elizabeth will bear a son, and you will name him John.” John- the Lord is gracious.

Sometimes I think the answer to my prayer should be my request fulfilled. But what if the thing I’m really seeking is God himself? What if in my praying, my yearning, my tears, and beseeching, He never gives me what I ask Him for, but He gives me more of Himself? What if I see His heart and nature more clearly, when He leaves my hands empty? Is it worth it?

“Hope delayed makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Our greatest desire, and deepest longing has already been fulfilled in Jesus. One day, we will have our share in the tree of life and the holy city because of Him.

In the meantime: in the silence, and in the waiting, when you feel unseen, unheard, perhaps even forgotten by the One who sees and knows all, I pray you will not find your faith dependent on answered prayers, but on a faithful God. I’m praying He fills our empty hands and aching hearts with the eternal hope found only in Him.

Natalie