They Had Stopped Praying

The summer I was 21, I packed my bags with plans of traveling to Sudan for a mission trip. Back then, Sudan was more dangerous than it is now. At that point I had been on many mission trips, yet Sudan was an intense place. I raised the money, packed my bags, and boarded a plane to Africa to help my dad and his medical team for a week of caring for people in a very rural area.

We stayed the night in Kenya before flying to Sudan, and that night I became very ill with stomach issues – vomiting and diarrhea. I’ll spare you the details, but as my teammates flew on to Sudan to work, I was flown the other way – back into Kenya, where I stayed with a missionary family as I recovered from my illness. I felt pretty weak the first day, then I cried a lot as my body bounced back to normal, because I wanted to be in Sudan, not Kenya!

Throughout that week I was able to experience life where I was. I ate a meal in the tiny home of a Kenyan woman. I visited a children’s hospital. From where I stayed, I looked out across the beautiful Rift Valley, and realized that I was IN KENYA. In high school, I had written a research paper on Kenya, and I sponsored a Kenyan child through Compassion International. As a teenager, I had longed to go on a mission trip to Kenya, but in my college years that desire faded. Then, at age 21, I found myself stranded there.

I realized that even though that dream had faded from my heart, God had heard my prayers years before, and He chose to surprise me with that opportunity.

A couple of years ago I read a Facebook post that stuck with me. My friend Amy pointed out God broke the silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament with an announcement about a baby that was coming – not an announcement to Mary, but to Zechariah.

You see, God spoke to the prophets in the Old Testament, then for generations He was very quiet. Then He began speaking to people again at the time when Jesus was coming to Earth. But the words that broke God’s 400 years of silence were when God spoke to the priest Zechariah to tell him that his wife Elizabeth would finally bear a child in her old age.

A recent sermon I listened to motivated me to dig into Bible commentaries about the story of

Zechariah and Elizabeth. Scholars say that when the angel said to Zechariah, “God has heard your prayers,” he wasn’t speaking about the prayers of that specific day or time – instead the angel was referring to the prayers of the past, the prayers that people may have even forgotten.

Even though (presumably) Zechariah and Elizabeth had accepted the fact that they were old and had no children, GOD did NOT forget their prayers for a son.

God could have begun revealing Himself to people in a million different ways. However He chose His long-awaited conversation with mankind to go something like this. Hey there, I know that you haven't been hearing much from Me, but I have heard your prayers. All of them. I even care about the ones that you gave up on. Those prayers from years ago, those prayers from early in your marriage... They are prayers that I have not forgotten. I have not forgotten you. I had a purpose and a plan all along. You see, I have divine timing. Your wife's cousin Mary is about to give birth to the Messiah. But she is only a teenager and I needed to bring her to this age, because YOUR son, who will be a few months older than Jesus, will be the forerunner. He will be the one who will prepare the way for the ministry of the Messiah. I know that you're old. But I needed your son to come in this time, for this purpose.

God has heard my prayers for a child. He has heard yours. It might seem like His answer is no, but unless you’re dead, you have not run out of time. He intends for His children to be born for “such a time as this.” He heard my prayer and my desire to go to Kenya, and He fulfilled that dream once I forgot about it. Whatever prayer you have prayed is NOT too late, NOT forgotten by the one who knows all things.

He’s good. And He answers forgotten prayers.

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Hi, I'm Betsy, and I live in the Washington, D.C. area with my husband, Mike. We have been married since 2008. We enjoy exploring new cities together on foot, eating at our favorite Italian restaurants, and doing life as a team. I published my first book Embracing Hope During Infertility in January 2015. You can learn more about me here. I invite you to connect with me by following my Hope During Infertility Facebook page or my Betsy Herman, Writer Facebook page. Thanks so much for reading my posts!