{"id":643,"date":"2026-01-02T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?p=643&2025"},"modified":"2025-12-30T17:00:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T00:00:24","slug":"he-hears-our-prayers-luke-1-5-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/he-hears-our-prayers-luke-1-5-25\/","title":{"rendered":"He Hears Our Prayers: Luke 1:5-25"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"spoiler spoiler-style-2\"><div class=\"spoiler-title\">Focus Passage: Luke 1:5-25 (NIV)<\/div><div class=\"spoiler-content\">\r\n<p><sup>5\u00a0<\/sup>In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. <sup>6\u00a0<\/sup>Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord\u2019s commands and decrees blamelessly. <sup>7\u00a0<\/sup>But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.<\/p> <p><sup>8\u00a0<\/sup>Once when Zechariah\u2019s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, <sup>9\u00a0<\/sup>he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. <sup>10\u00a0<\/sup>And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.<\/p> <p><sup>11\u00a0<\/sup>Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. <sup>12\u00a0<\/sup>When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. <sup>13\u00a0<\/sup>But the angel said to him: \u201cDo not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. <sup>14\u00a0<\/sup>He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, <sup>15\u00a0<\/sup>for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. <sup>16\u00a0<\/sup>He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. <sup>17\u00a0<\/sup>And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous\u2014to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.\u201d<\/p> <p><sup>18\u00a0<\/sup>Zechariah asked the angel, \u201cHow can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.\u201d<\/p> <p><sup>19\u00a0<\/sup>The angel said to him, \u201cI am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. <sup>20\u00a0<\/sup>And now 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 at their appointed time.\u201d<\/p> <p><sup>21\u00a0<\/sup>Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. <sup>22\u00a0<\/sup>When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.<\/p> <p><sup>23\u00a0<\/sup>When his time of service was completed, he returned home. <sup>24\u00a0<\/sup>After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. <sup>25\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cThe Lord has done this for me,\u201d she said. \u201cIn these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"passage-read-more\">Read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke 1:5-25&amp;version=niv\" title=\"Read the passage on BibleGateway.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"hyperlink-underlined\">Luke 1:5-25<\/a> in context and\/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>After Luke begins his gospel with a formal greeting, instead of sharing Jesus\u2019 back story and His birth story, Luke goes even further and chooses to focus on the birth of Jesus\u2019 forerunner in ministry, John the Baptist. While John\u2019s birth is not as miraculous as Jesus\u2019 birth, it was a birth that God did have His hand in.<\/p>\r\n<p>While reading this event, a phrase jumped out at me that has important implications for everyone who has chosen to include prayer as part of their lives. \u00a0When Zechariah entered the temple to burn incense, he realized he was not the only one in that inner room of the temple \u2013 an angel appeared to him standing beside the alter. \u201c<strong>When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: \u201cDo not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard.<\/strong>\u201d (v. 12-13)<\/p>\r\n<p>While we are quick to move through this story and get to the promise of the angel, and Zechariah\u2019s doubt, too often we miss a key phrase at the beginning of the angel\u2019s message. After calming Zechariah\u2019s nerves as much as possible by saying, \u201c<strong>Do not be afraid,<\/strong>\u201d the very first part of the angel\u2019s message is, \u201c<strong>Your prayer has been heard.<\/strong>\u201d (v. 13)<\/p>\r\n<p>This is important, because all too often, when we pray, we may wonder or doubt if God really hears us. If God chooses not to answer us, or if He determines that the time isn\u2019t right for us to receive a response, we may wonder if God really has heard us. It is in this first part of the angel\u2019s message to Zechariah that each of us can see that God really does hear our prayers. It was years, and maybe even decades that this elderly couple had prayed for a child, and perhaps they had long since given up now that they were old.<\/p>\r\n<p>But whether our prayer was spoken 5 minutes ago or even 5 years ago, God has heard it, and He has been working <em>(and perhaps waiting for the right time)<\/em> to give us the best possible answer for us. God hears our prayers, and He answers them at the perfect time and in the perfect way from His kingdom perspective \u2013 the perspective that results in the greatest number of people being saved for eternity.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Zechariah\u2019s prayers didn\u2019t fall on deaf ears. Instead, God was waiting for the perfect time to give him an answer.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<div id=\"aj-wrap-up--643\" class=\"aj-wrap-up\"><p><em>This thought was inspired by studying the <strong>Walking With Jesus<\/strong> \u201cReflective Bible Study\u201d package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, <a class=\"underline\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/\" title=\"Check out Reflective Bible Study!\">click here<\/a> and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!<\/em><\/p><p><em><a class=\"underline\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\" onClick=\"rbs_aj_inline_subscribe(this, '643');\">Subscribe<\/a> to this blog and never miss an insight.<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Luke begins his gospel with a formal greeting, instead of sharing Jesus\u2019 back story and His birth story, Luke goes even further and chooses to focus on the birth of Jesus\u2019 forerunner in ministry, John the Baptist. While John\u2019s birth is not as miraculous as Jesus\u2019 birth, it was a birth that God did [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text"],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[2],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>He Hears Our Prayers: Luke 1:5-25 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/he-hears-our-prayers-luke-1-5-25\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"He Hears Our Prayers: Luke 1:5-25 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After Luke begins his gospel with a formal greeting, instead of sharing Jesus\u2019 back story and His birth story, Luke goes even further and chooses to focus on the birth of Jesus\u2019 forerunner in ministry, John the Baptist. 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